I'm cloning from a repository based  on a Windows server with files in UTF-8.
The repository contains files named XXXXXX.pli

I'd like to clone to z/OS with the target codepage IBM-1047, but I cant get it to work
I have placed .gitattributes file in the repository and also in the target work dataset,
but I get no codepage conversion.

Where should .gitattributes be located and are the any other setting there must be switched on/off or set ?

Current .gitattributes looks like this:

# line endings
* text eol=lf
# file encodings
.cpy zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.cbl zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.bms zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.pli zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.mfs zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.bnd zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.lnk zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.txt zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.groovy zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.sh zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.properties zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.asm zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.jcl zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.mac zos-working-tree-encoding=ibm-1047
.json zos-working-tree-encoding=utf-8

Thanks for the swift answer

I'm not sure what "root" means in this context

I have the .gitattributes in the main branch, along side the work files, but I suppose thats not the *root" ? 

My use of 'root' meant the main git repository directory where the files reside.

This is a sample that may help:

drwxrwxrwx 8 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 8192 Sep 12 12:46 . 
drwxrwxrwx 37 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 8192 Dec 6 11:26 .. 
drwxrwxrwx 7 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 8192 Dec 4 10:43 .git 
t ISO8859-1 T=on -rw-rw-rw- 1 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 511 Sep 12 12:46 .gitattributes 
drwxrwxrwx 3 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 8192 Sep 12 12:46 .github 
drwxrwxrwx 2 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 8192 Nov 15 06:54 .zigi 
t IBM-1047 T=on -rw-rw-rw- 1 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 2299 Sep 12 12:46 README.md 
drwxrwxrwx 2 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 8192 Nov 15 06:46 ZIGI.EXEC 
t IBM-1047 T=on -rw-rw-rw- 1 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 35153 Sep 14 17:26 ZIGI.GPLLIC 
drwxrwxrwx 2 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 8192 Sep 12 12:46 ZIGI.PANELS 
t IBM-1047 T=on -rw-rw-rw- 1 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 1755 Sep 12 13:30 ZIGI.README 
t IBM-1047 T=on -rw-rw-rw- 1 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 47950 Nov 30 15:14 ZIGI.RELEASE 
drwxrwxrwx 2 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 8192 Sep 12 12:46 ZIGI.SAMPLES 
t IBM-1047 T=on -rw-rw-rw- 1 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 1079 Sep 12 12:46 zginstall.readme 
t IBM-1047 T=on -rwxrwxrwx 1 LBDYCK ZOWEDEV 56426 Sep 12 12:46 zginstall.rex