$re = '/background=[\'"](?!\s*(http|ftp):\/\/)\/?(?<filename>[^\'"]*)[\'"]/m';
$str = 'background="image.gif"
background="/image.gif"
background="images/image.gif"
background="http://host/images/directory/image.gif"
background="images/directory/image.gif"
background=\'image.gif\'
background=\'/image.gif\'
background=\'images/image.gif\'
background=\'http://host/images/directory/image.gif\'
background=\'/images/directory/image.gif \'
background=\'\'
background=\' http://host/images/directory/image.gif \'
background=\'test/http://host/images/directory/image.gif\'';
$subst = "/mydir/${filename}";
$result = preg_replace($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