diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
index 07764a78d984..ed25c885ddfa 100644
--- a/.gitattributes
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -1 +1,17 @@
-* text eol=lf
\ No newline at end of file
+# By default, detect text files automatically, and use whatever line terminators make sense for the OS
+* text=auto
+
+# Java files are text, and we want Java-friendly readable hunk headers for diff
+*.java text diff=java
+
+# Force LF/CRLF format for files that are known to require it.
+*.sh text eol=lf
+*.bat text eol=crlf
+
+# For some reason the above is not enough, in particular for gradlew.bat,
+# as some commands (git status, git add --renormalize) will still change its line endings to LF.
+# So, we explicitly tell git not to mess with *.bat line endings.
+# It's annoying as git won't show diffs for these files anymore,
+# but that's the best I could come up with after an hour of head-scratching.
+*.bat binary
+
diff --git a/.github/hibernate-github-bot.yml b/.github/hibernate-github-bot.yml
index 70eb323d4b83..c78df9fbbc34 100644
--- a/.github/hibernate-github-bot.yml
+++ b/.github/hibernate-github-bot.yml
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ jira:
   ignoreFiles:
     # Git
     - ".git*"
+    - "*/.git*"
     - ".mailmap"
     # Gradle
     - "gradlew*"
@@ -19,6 +20,7 @@ jira:
     - "ci/"
     - "databases/"
     - "*.sh"
+    - "*.bat"
     - "Jenkinsfile"
     - "*/Jenkinsfile"
     - "*.Jenkinsfile"
@@ -37,6 +39,8 @@ jira:
     - "release/"
     - "rules/"
     - "shared/"
+    - ".sdkmanrc"
+    - "*/.sdkmanrc"
 develocity:
   buildScan:
     addCheck: true
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index a8c02f23b23b..8d0d975bf5bc 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -16,9 +16,7 @@ lib
 
 # IntelliJ specific files/directories
 out
-.idea
-!.idea/codeStyles/Project.xml
-!.idea/inspectionProfiles/Project_Default.xml
+# See .idea/.gitignore for more precise rules in that directory
 *.ipr
 *.iws
 *.iml
@@ -47,10 +45,9 @@ ObjectStore
 *.hprof
 /.nb-gradle/
 
-# Additional databases used in local envs
-databases/mysql/
-databases/postgis/
-
 # Vim
 *.swp
 *.swo
+
+# SDKman, used by some module maintainers
+.sdkmanrc
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.idea/.gitignore b/.idea/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f54e30784000
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.idea/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+*
+!.gitignore
+
+# See https://stackoverflow.com/a/67976259/6692043
+!codeStyles/
+!codeStyles/Project.xml
+!codeStyles/codeStyleConfig.xml
+!inspectionProfiles/
+!inspectionProfiles/Project_Default.xml
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.release/.gitignore b/.release/.gitignore
index 20f846ffeb97..cdd9a17d6b0d 100644
--- a/.release/.gitignore
+++ b/.release/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 # The folder into which we checkout our release scripts into
-*
\ No newline at end of file
+*
+!.gitignore
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/databases/.gitignore b/databases/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index ee4c8ef2c67d..000000000000
--- a/databases/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-!mariadb/
-!pgsql/
-!derby/
-./
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/drivers/.gitignore b/drivers/.gitignore
index 01b7e33fd470..144978ed2357 100644
--- a/drivers/.gitignore
+++ b/drivers/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1,3 @@
-**/*
\ No newline at end of file
+*
+!.gitignore
+!README.adoc
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/hibernate-spatial/.gitignore b/hibernate-spatial/.gitignore
deleted file mode 100644
index e0b3904e6bb7..000000000000
--- a/hibernate-spatial/.gitignore
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-.sdkmanrc
diff --git a/hibernate-spatial/.sdkmanrc b/hibernate-spatial/.sdkmanrc
deleted file mode 100644
index 92d04b893ed2..000000000000
--- a/hibernate-spatial/.sdkmanrc
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-# Enable auto-env through the sdkman_auto_env config
-# Add key=value pairs of SDKs to use below
-java=8.0.252.hs-adpt
-