$re = '/^(?<SHA>[0-9a-f]+)\s+\(\S+\s+\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}\ \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}\ [+-]\d{4}\s+(?<line>\d+)\)\ ?(?<code>.*)$/m';
$str = 'f02d38023450 (PersonA 2019-08-03 13:27:04 +0200 2338) <whitespace>
a7ebc6f94ab4 (PersonB 2019-11-04 12:05:07 +0100 2339) <some code>
a7ebc6f94ab4 (PersonA 2019-11-04 12:05:07 +0100 2340) <some code>
f02d38023450 (PersonA 2019-08-03 13:27:04 +0200 2341) <whitespace>
';
preg_match_all($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