> I'm using InstallAnywhere to do some pattern matching and replacing in the specified file. ...

I'm not sure I understand. Is InstallAnywhere using Perl underneath to implement this search and replace? I don't really know anything about this product, but from a quick web search I'm guessing not.

So, if it's Java underneath, as I suspect it is, I don't know that Perl folks can necessarily help you. If it were full-on Perl underneath, you might try taking it in three steps:

SEARCH: / (?=.*=/   REPLACE: /%space%/
SEARCH: / /         REPLACE: /\\ /
SEARCH: /%space%/   REPLACE: / /
[download]

(without the slashes, natch). That wouldn't be quite perfect, I fear, because I think it would backslash the space immediately following the =. But it'd be close.

But I think the conversation is moot because I don't think it's really a Perl question.