re = /(?s)\\begin\{[^{}]*}(?:(?!\\(?:end|begin)).|(?R))*\\end\{[^{}]*}/m
str = 'meh meh
\\begin{itemize}
\\item something1
\\begin{itemize}
\\item something1.1
\\item something1.2
\\end{itemize}
\\item something2
\\begin{itemize}
\\item something2.1
\\item something2.2
\\end{itemize}
\\end{itemize}
blah blah
\\begin{itemize}
\\item somethingelse1
\\item somethingelse2
\\end{itemize}
the end.'
# Print the match result
str.scan(re) do |match|
puts match.to_s
end
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 Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html