$re = '/(?s)\n(?=(?:(?!START).)*?END)/m';
$str = 'some text to not modify
some pattern on more than one line START
text to be indented
or remove indentation maybe ?
some pattern on more than one line END
some text to not modify
---
some text to not modify
some pattern on more than one line START
text to be indented
or remove indentation maybe ?
some pattern on more than one line END
some text to not modify';
$subst = "\n\t";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
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