$re = '/^(#|//)(?:.+\n)+^\1.+\n?/m';
$str = 'i want this
#____NOT_FOR_CUSTOMER_BEGIN________
not this
nor this
#________NOT_FOR_CUSTOMER_END____
and this
//____NOT_FOR_CUSTOMER_BEGIN__
not this again
nor this again
//__________NOT_FOR_CUSTOMER_END____
and this again
//---
dsdsd
# dsds
// dsdsd';
preg_match_all($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