my $gpa_key = "azxinetgw.EXECFILE_DIR.azxinetgw='/usr/local/instinet/RTS/etc/local/azxfiles'";
    my $gpa_ret = "gpa: $gpa_key";
    warn $gpa_ret;
    print "gpakey: $gpa_key\n";
    #print "gparet: $gpa_ret\n";
    if (  $gpa_ret =~ /[^=]+[=][']([^']+)[']/ ) { 
            my $assigned_dir = $1 ;
            print "$assigned_dir\n";} 
    else { die "couldn't determine assigned directory for    $gpa_key" 
    }

##</code><code>##

gpa: azxinetgw.EXECFILE_DIR.azxinetgw='/usr/local/instinet/RTS/etc/local/azxfiles' at D:\DATA_TO_MIGRATE\dbexamples\ex\gpa.pl line 7
.
gpakey: azxinetgw.EXECFILE_DIR.azxinetgw='/usr/local/instinet/RTS/etc/local/azxfiles'
/usr/local/instinet/RTS/etc/local/azxfiles