$re = '/(\[trace-[0-9]+\].*?<\/(?:reply|request)>)/s';
$str = '[trace-123] <request>This is a log line</request>
[trace-124] <reply>This is another log line
this is part of "[trace-124]" still.</reply>
[trace-125] <request>final log line.</request>';
preg_match_all($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