keeping /etc under git with etckeeper

["Pierre-Julien Bringer" <pj.bringer@gmail.com>]

Do you think storing the etc directory in git with etckeeper is a good
thing? I've heard it was not recommended to do so for the home
directory, but also for /etc:
1 Git tries to find a link between the changes and there would
probably be none for $HOME, according to Randal Schwarz [1].
2 Git does not store permissions of files [2].
3 If Git has some sort of merge conflict on important config files
(passwd, etc...), it would be pretty bad [3].

When using etckeeper:
1 There would be a link between the changes if a commit occurs between tasks.
2 Permissions are stored thanks to Metastore.

I have only superficial experience in using git, and I don't really
know how likely it would be for things to go wrong. Merging seems to
be the dangerous operation, but using it to track linear history would
be okay. Gentoo users have been able to use RCS for a long time, but
that solution is considered to be deprecated, although it does the
job. Can experienced git users think of any reason not to use a small
subset of git for this task?


Pierre-Julien Bringer


[1] Randal Schwarz, "Git" at Google, October 12 2007, available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dhZ9BXQgc4
[2] Git project's FAQ available at http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitFaq
[3] Joey Hess, November 26 2007 on vcs-home -- Discussion list for
storing ~ under VCS control, available at
http://lists.madduck.net/pipermail/vcs-home/2007-November/000102.html