Entire linux in CVS

Hello Linuxmanagers!
 
I'd like to maintain my entire Knoppix remaster in CVS.  I've been
having serious difficulties because of the limitations of CVS with
regards to Symlinks, as well as device files/blocks. 
 
This is a pretty broad question, but does anyone have any advice on how
I could better manage and maintain my distribution either in CVS or with
some other package or methodology?
 
One possibility that I've been exploring is having a template
directory/tarball  that is not maintained in CVS. The template includes
all of /dev/, and I'm trying to think of a way to manage all of the
symlinks in the template too, but that hasn't quite worked out.
 
I'm sure that there is a better way of managing the entire Linux distro.
The big Linux projects such as redhat/mandrake etc must be using some
kind of versioning software or something other than the plain old
directory structure.
 
 
Thanks for all your time!
 
 
     - Jeremy Cohoe
 
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