$re = '/^(?P<content>(?:[-/][a-zA-Z0-9\-_]+)?=?)(?P<prefix>bazel-out|external)//m';
$str = '-Ibazel-out/k8-fastbuild/include" → Matches bazel-out/
-Lexternal/foo/lib" → Matches external/
--gcc-toolchain=bazel-out/toolchain" → Matches bazel-out/
-fmodule-output=external/module.pcm" → Matches external/
/Ibazel-out/k8-fastbuild/include" (MSVC, Windows) → Matches bazel-out\\
--extract-api-ignores=external/bar,baz" → Matches external/
bazel-out/k8-fastbuild/source.c" (file field) → Matches bazel-out/
Should Not Match
-Ifoo/bazel-out/bar" (nested path) → No match
-Dmacro=bazel-out_value" (not a path) → No match
bazel-output/include" (similar name) → No match
-I externals/foo" (similar name) → No match
-I bazel-out/..." (space after -I) → No match (separate flags)';
$subst = "\g<content>dynamically-matched-new-prefix/";
$result = preg_replace($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