$re = '/http[s]?:\/{2}.+\/def/';
$str = '<xml>http://localhost:8080/def/abc/xyx</xml>
<element xlink:href="http://localhostABCDEF/def/ABC/XYZ">Some Text</element>';
$subst = "http://google.com/def";
$result = preg_replace($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