diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index f724967cde09..408b5738f0e6 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -15,3 +15,6 @@
 
 # Always checkout docs using unix line endings because mdoc uses unix line endings even on windows
 /docs/**/*.xml text eol=lf
+
+# avoid overriding GitInfo.txt on merge
+GitInfo.txt merge=ours
diff --git a/.gitconfig b/.gitconfig
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..4a8fc6b2a1f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitconfig
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[merge "ours"]
+    driver = true