config() { NEW="$1" OLD="$(dirname $NEW)/$(basename $NEW .new)" # If there's no config file by that name, mv it over: if [ ! -r $OLD ]; then mv $NEW $OLD elif [ "$(cat $OLD | md5sum)" = "$(cat $NEW | md5sum)" ]; then # toss the redundant copy rm $NEW fi # Otherwise, we leave the .new copy for the admin to consider... } config etc/fail2ban/fail2ban.conf.new config etc/fail2ban/jail.conf.new for conf_file in etc/fail2ban/action.d/*.new; do config $conf_file done for conf_file in etc/fail2ban/filter.d/*.new; do config $conf_file done