Version control for system files?

[oanjao]

Now that the Ext* and Reiser filesystems are beginning to support file metadata, would it not be cool to have some sort of file version control and backup capability for files in /etc and other critical areas of the system? You could also have a similar feature on Portage that would keep track of what you installed and upgraded and when. The other day Windowmaker quit working on me. Why? Because I had changed the $HOME variable in a system bashrc while installing a contorted piece of software (OpenFoam) and now Windowmaker couldn't find my home directory. It took me a while to remember what I had tweaked recently and what might have confused Windowmaker (I had not restarted X in days). Sure would be nice to look through an automatically generated "changelog."
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[tetromino]

Have a look at http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20040216-newsletter.xml#doc_chap6
It's not a filesystem plugin, but it's good enough for government work...