$re = '/\s*<parent>\n\s*<groupId>com\.ps\.consul\.releng<\/groupId>\n\s*<artifactId>com\.ps\.consul\.releng<\/artifactId>\n\s*<version>1\.0\.0-SNAPSHOT<\/version>\n\s*<relativePath>\.\.\/com\.ps\.consul\.releng<\/relativePath>\n\s*<\/parent>/';
$str = ' <parent>
<groupId>com.ps.consul.releng</groupId>
<artifactId>com.ps.consul.releng</artifactId>
<version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
<relativePath>../com.ps.consul.releng</relativePath>
</parent>';
preg_match($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