re = /-a----\s{2,}[0-9]\/[0-9]{1,}\/201[0-9]\s{1,}[0-9]{1,}:[0-9]{2} [AP]M\s{2,}[0-9]{2,}\s/m
str = '-a---- 7/30/2017 4:28 PM 201 textfile1.txt
-a---- 6/9/2016 4:03 PM 44 textfile2.txt
-a---- 6/22/2017 12:10 PM 137 textfile3.txt
-a---- 6/6/2017 7:24 PM 8269721 otherfile.com
-a---- 3/11/2016 4:22 PM 3370 otherfile.bat'
subst = ' Call Deletefile(MyMaster.ZSVCPATH\'\\\\firmware\\\\'
result = str.gsub(re, subst)
# Print the result of the substitution
puts result
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html