$re = '/^(\S+|\S+\s+\d+\s+\S+) \S+ postfix\/(submission\/)?smtpd(?:\[\d+\])?: \w+: client=\S+\[(\S+)\], sasl_method=(?:(?i)LOGIN|PLAIN|(?:CRAM|DIGEST)-MD5), sasl_username=(\S+)$/m';
$str = 'Sep 23 11:45:31 el7p17 postfix/smtpd[39220]: CB957400A36E: client=unknown[192.168.1.122], sasl_method=PLAIN, sasl_username=test@example.com';
preg_match_all($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