#!/usr/bin/perl --
use 5.014;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Path::Tiny qw/ path /;
use POSIX();
use autodie qw/ close /;

Main( @ARGV );
exit( 0 );

sub Main {
#~     my( $infile_paths ) = @_;
    my( $infile_paths ) = 'C:\temp\test_folder\paths.txt';;
    my @paths = GetPaths( $infile_paths );
    for my $path ( @paths ){
        FormerlyMainNowReplaceXmlKids( $path );
    }
} ## end sub Main
sub GetPaths  {
    my @paths = path( shift )->lines_utf8;
    s/\s+$// for @paths; # "chomp"
    return @paths;
} ## end sub GetPaths 
sub FormerlyMainNowReplaceXmlKids {
#~ 	my( $directory ) = @_; ## same as shift @_ ##  same as shift
	my $directory = shift;
    my $date      = POSIX::strftime( '%Y-%m-%d', localtime );
    my $bak       = "$date.bak";
    my @xml_files = path( $directory )->children( qr/\.xml$/ );
    for my $file ( @xml_files ) {
        Replace( $file, "$file-$bak" );
    }
} ## end sub Main

sub Replace {
    my( $in, $bak ) = @_;
    
    path( $in )->move( $bak );
    
    my $infh  = path( $bak )->openr_raw;
    my $outfh = path( $in )->openrw_raw;
    
    while( <$infh> ) {
        s{&}{&amp;}g; ## will match more than what you want fix it
        s{&amp;amp;}{&amp;}g;
        s{\s>\s}{&gt;}g;
        s{\s<\s}{&lt;}g;
        print $outfh $_;
    }
    
    close $infh;
    close $outfh;
} ## end sub Replace