in reply to In place replace, ignoring between quotes

here one pure regex solution using /e eval-option to handle different cases: 
  DB<151> $str=$str0
 => " bla0 \"ignore a1\" bla1 \"ignore a2\" bla2"

  DB<152> $str =~ s/("[^"]*?"|a)/ $1 eq "a" ? "A" : $1 /ge
 => 5

  DB<153> $str
 => " blA0 \"ignore a1\" blA1 \"ignore a2\" blA2"

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Cheers Rolf

( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)

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Re^2: In place replace, ignoring between quotes (one regex)
by LanX (Saint) on Oct 25, 2013 at 21:41 UTC
    even shorter and more general in usage:

      DB<229> $_=$str0
 => " bla0 \"ignore a1\" bla1 \"ignore a2\" bla2"

  DB<230> s/("[^"]*")|a/ $1 or 'A' /ge
 => 5

  DB<231> $_
 => " blA0 \"ignore a1\" blA1 \"ignore a2\" blA2"

    [download]

    or for the OP

      DB<226> $_=q{cd / ; /path/to/R/R_latest --vanilla --args "fName='rGS
+DPlan';jobCode=682718;jobId=6827181;" < job682718.R > job_6827181.txt
+}

  DB<227> s/("[^"]*")|;/ $1 or '&&' /ge
 => 2

  DB<228> $_
 => "cd / && /path/to/R/R_latest --vanilla --args \"fName='rGSDPlan';j
+obCode=682718;jobId=6827181;\" < job682718.R > job_6827181.txt"

    [download]

    Cheers Rolf

    ( addicted to the Perl Programming Language)

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