title: Why do developers commit .dist files instead of the actual file?
body: <p>Why would a developer commit a .dist file instead of the actual file?</p>
  
  <p>For example:
  <a href="https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/PHP-CS-Fixer" rel="noreferrer">https://github.com/FriendsOfPHP/PHP-CS-Fixer</a></p>
  
  <pre><code>.php_cs.dist
  phpunit.xml.dist
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><a href="https://github.com/symfony/symfony" rel="noreferrer">https://github.com/symfony/symfony</a></p>
  
  <pre><code>.php_cs.dist
  phpunit.xml.dist
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Why are <code>.php_cs</code> and <code>phpunit.xml</code> committed as <code>.dist</code> files? </p>
  
  <p>Code formatting rules are in <code>.php_cs.dist</code> and if every contributor should follow the same rules why <code>.dist</code> file?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Update</strong> </p>
  
  <p>Reasoning behind <code>parameter.yml.dist</code> is obvious but why in particular <code>.php_cs</code> is not committed? Why somebody would change the <code>.php_cs</code> which contains code formatting rules? isn't the whole point of <code>.php_cs</code> that every contributor use same rules to format their code? </p>
  
  <p>Please reply regards to only these two files. </p>