$re = '/<plugin>
<groupId>org\.eclipse\.tycho<\/groupId>
<artifactId>tycho-packaging-plugin<\/artifactId>
<version>\${tycho-version}<\/version>
<configuration>
<sourceReferences>
<generate>true<\/generate>
<\/sourceReferences>
<\/configuration>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org\.eclipse\.tycho\.extras<\/groupId>
<artifactId>tycho-sourceref-jgit<\/artifactId>
<version>\${tycho-extras-version}<\/version>
<\/dependency>
<\/dependencies>
<\/plugin>/m';
$str = '<plugin>
<groupId>org.eclipse.tycho</groupId>
<artifactId>tycho-packaging-plugin</artifactId>
<version>${tycho-version}</version>
<configuration>
<sourceReferences>
<generate>true</generate>
</sourceReferences>
</configuration>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.eclipse.tycho.extras</groupId>
<artifactId>tycho-sourceref-jgit</artifactId>
<version>${tycho-extras-version}</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</plugin>';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
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 PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php