Need to version control entire root file system

Not user's home directories, but everything else; and no version control
meta-data cruft left lying around inside my image.

The base "image" is kept offline.  I want to version control changes to
every file and directory in that offline image.  

Ascii files need explicit diffs, binary files can just be flagged as
changed.  I need to be able to view which files changed at any check-in
point, what files are different now from the last check-in, how the
ASCII files changed between any two versions, and roll-back the entire
image to any previous version.

Mostly, I need the diff repository to be outside the image; I don't want
hidden version control directories in every directory of my file
system... I need the version control meta-data kept elsewhere (this
image gets provisioned onto systems).

Will Arch do this?  If not, can anybody recommend a good version control
utility (or maybe one that is extensible) for this?

Note that I use "image" to mean "root file system", and not a disk image
per se; something you could chroot to.

Thanks,

Chris