Ask HN: Version Control System w/ Centralized Diffs

I'm looking for an (open source) version control system where the diff info for changes is kept in a centralized location (filesystem or database).

To be clearer: Is there a VCS that will keep the file/folder structure in-tact without adding anything (such as .svn folders) to the directories being watched? It can store the changes either in a database or in a folder somewhere on the system, just not in the actual folder tree itself.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

With git, you can use combination of GIT_WORK_TREE and GIT_DIR environment variables (or the equivalent params to git command) to specify where the work tree and the .git dir reside.

Downside of this is that you have to set up env separately for each project (if you have multiple projects), basically wrapping git.

Another quick'n'dirty solution could also be to just have everything in one subdirectory of git working tree (since git doesn't pollute every directory like .svn does). This would also work with bzr or hg.

Eric Sink is writing an excellent series of articles on source control at http://www.ericsink.com/scm/source_control.html