$re = '/(--extra-vars\s)([a-zA-Z0-9\=\s]*)\s/';
$str = '--extra-vars user=zaslam a=abcd --test';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($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