Im trying to extract subtitle entries out of a SRT file. Ive written a script that opens the file and with the help of regex fetches the strings. Ive testes the regex pattern on regex101.com using the correct php engine. And it works. For some reason php CLI has an issue with the pattern. It seems that newlines "\n" in the pattern is either causing the problem or the imported file strips all newlines.

here is the regex pattern

^(?<NR>\d+)\n(?<START>\d\d:\d\d:\d\d,\d\d\d)(?>\s?-->\s?)(?<END>\d\d:\d\d:\d\d,\d\d\d)\n(?<STRING>(?>.+\n?)+)

Dummy text:

1
00:00:46,296 --> 00:00:50,425
They were startled and frightened,
thinking they saw a ghost.

2
00:00:50,467 --> 00:00:52,386
He said to them,

3
00:00:54,179 --> 00:00:57,140
"Why are you troubled, and
why do doubts rise in your minds?

4
00:00:57,182 --> 00:00:59,977
<i>Look at my hands and my feet.
It is I myself!</i>

PHP code

<?php
$path1 = $argv[1];
$file1_content = file_get_contents($path1);

$pattern = '%^(?<NR>\d+)\n(?<START>\d\d:\d\d:\d\d,\d\d\d)(?>\s?-->\s?)(?<END>\d\d:\d\d:\d\d,\d\d\d)\n(?<STRING>(?>.+\n?)+)%';
$success = preg_match_all($pattern, $file1_content, $matches);
var_dump($matches);

CLI Instructions

1. open a text file and save the dummy content into it.

2. Open your shell and goto dir of txt file.

3. type %php -f [php-script-file] -- [full-path-to-dummy-file]