$re = '/(?:{(?:[a-zA-Z]:)?[a-zA-Z_]\w*}){2,}(*SKIP)(*F)|{(?:(?<type>[a-zA-Z]):)?(?<name>[a-zA-Z_]\w*)}/';
$str = '/home/{i:id}{s:noVar}/{m:varName}/{s:someOther}';
preg_match_all($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