diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eab01fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+*.txt eol=lf
+*#txt eol=lf
+*.sh eol=lf
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7034578..9915552 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 /*/target/
 /target/
 core/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Build.java
+*.iml
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java b/core/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java
index a1deca4..80ea812 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/com/threerings/getdown/data/Application.java
@@ -594,7 +594,10 @@ public class Application
      * like the appbase and version.
      */
     public void initBase (Config config) throws IOException {
-        // first determine our application base, this way if anything goes wrong later in the
+        // first extract our version information
+        _version = config.getLong("version", -1L);
+
+        // determine our application base, this way if anything goes wrong later in the
         // process, our caller can use the appbase to download a new configuration file
         _appbase = config.getString("appbase");
         if (_appbase == null) {
@@ -609,9 +612,6 @@ public class Application
             _appbase += "/";
         }
 
-        // extract our version information
-        _version = config.getLong("version", -1L);
-
         // if we are a versioned deployment, create a versioned appbase
         try {
             _vappbase = createVAppBase(_version);