$re = '/^(\w+)\s+(\w+)\s([\w-:]+)\s+([\w-]+)\s+(?P<process>[\w-]+)(\[.*\]:|:)/';
$str = 'Sep 1 17:53:40 c7-ssm-01 journal: Rootkit Hunter: Please inspect this machine, because it may be infected.
Sep 1 17:53:40 c7-ssm-01 journal: Rootkit Hunter: Scanning took 1 minute and 31 seconds
Sep 1 17:52:09 c7-ssm-01 journal: Rootkit Hunter: Rootkit hunter check started (version 1.4.2)
Sep 1 17:49:26 c7-man-rds-01 journal: Rootkit Hunter: Please inspect this machine, because it may be infected.
Sep 1 17:49:26 c7-man-rds-01 journal: Rootkit Hunter: Scanning took 1 minute and 18 seconds
Sep 1 17:48:08 c7-man-rds-01 journal: Rootkit Hunter: Rootkit hunter check started (version 1.4.2)
Sep 1 17:24:17 c7-ids-01 journal: Rootkit Hunter: Please inspect this machine, because it may be infected.
Sep 1 17:24:17 c7-ids-01 journal: Rootkit Hunter: Scanning took 2 minutes and 6 seconds
Sep 1 17:22:11 c7-ids-01 journal: Rootkit Hunter: Rootkit hunter check started (version 1.4.2)
Sep 1 16:47:31 c7-dns-resolver-01 journal: Rootkit Hunter: Please inspect this machine, because it may be infected.';
preg_match($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