$re = '/^(?!.*--.*\[[A-Z]+\]).*\[[A-Z]+\]/m';
$str = '[GET] test
test [POST] test
test [POST] --test
test [GET] test --test [GET] test
test test
--[GET] test
test --[GET] test
test --test [GET] test';
preg_match_all($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