$re = '/(?<arg> # Start arg group
(?<key>\w+) # key group: 1+ word chars
= # =
(?<quote>[\'"`]?) # quote group: an optional " \' or `
(?<value>(?:(?!\k<quote>)[^\\\\])*(?:\\\\[\s\S](?:(?!\k<quote>)[^\\\\])*)*) # value group: any 0+ chars other than quote char with escaped quote chars allowed
\k<quote> # quote group value
) # end of arg group/x';
$str = 'arg="value" arg=\'value\' arg=`value` arg="value \'value\'" arg=\'value \\\'value\\\' value\' arg="value \\"value\\" value" arg=`value \\`value\\ value`';
preg_match_all($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