$re = '/^(?!nightly)((?<compatibility>\w*-?)?)(?<major>\d+)(\.(?<minor>\d+)(\.(?<patch>\d+)([\.-]?(?<build>.*)))?)?(?!nightly|developement|develop)$/m';
$str = '100.200.300
100.200.300.7068-ls170
v100.200.300-ls213
version-100.200.300
version-100.200.300-ls180
version-100.200.300.11111
100.200.300.7068-ls170
nigthly-100.200.300
nightly-100.200.300.3604-ls587
100.200.300-development
100.200.300-develop
100.200.300-nigthly
';
preg_match_all($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