detection rule version check for text files

I need a way to check for a version of a text file, I can check if it exist but need way to check for change.  Need ideas.

Basically I want to modify my software package to copy 3 text files for controlling Java settings to the machines.  I do this now but the settings files are on a network share.  The nice thing about this is I can easily modify the settings and all the clients are updated the issue is when a machine is offline it basically kills Java.  So I would like to put all these files locally on the machine but not lose my ability to keep these settings updated as I make changes.

Any ideas?  I'm using software management (MSD) to copy the files to the pc's.