$re = '/^interface GigabitEthernet1\/0\/[0-9](?=(?:(?!\ninterface GigabitEthernet1\/0\/[0-9])[\s\S])*switchport mode access)/m';
$str = 'interface GigabitEthernet1/0/1
description abc
bla
switchport mode access
xyz
abc
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/2
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/3
xyz
abc
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/4
description Test
switchport mode access
xyz
abc
interface GigabitEthernet1/0/5
description';
preg_match_all($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