This is convenient, here's how to do it:
# Install svk apt-get install svk # Initialize a depot in /root/.svk svk depotmap --init # Import /etc making it a working copy svk import --to-checkout //etc /etc # Make your depot not that readable chmod -R go-rwx ~/.svk # Remove volatile files from revision control cd /etc svk rm -K adjtime ld.so.cache
...and voilà, you have /etc/ under revision control, without CVS or .svn or {arch} or .bzr files around. The syntax of svk is just like the syntax of svn, of which it's a distributed extension.