Regex php multiline comment (Meld)

Question

I need to diff two different version of the same app. The files are signed with a licences and that license has changed.

I don't want that files that contain the license only diff are signed as different.

I use Meld as diff software and it allows for regex.

<?php
/**
 *
 * NOTICE OF LICENSE
 *
 * This source file is subject to the License ....
 *
 */

There are similar questions but none is working for me:

Regex tried:

\/\*.*?\*\/|\/\/.*?\n
~//?\s*\*[\s\S]*?\*\s*//?~

Actually this one looks to works but I'm not sure it is filtering too much:

\*.*

UPDATE:
This is not possible: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/meld-list/2011-December/msg00004.html

While the filter code in Meld will happily accept a regex that covers (and removes) multiple lines, this causes line mismatches between the text the diff sees and the text that we display, so all of the change blocks will be wrong.

Different approach is to remove the lines from the files before process them into meld.

Please try some simple regex first to see if it works at all, like `\d+` to match digits. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Oct 29 '16 at 10:58
I tried it and it works fine ( if for example the license show 2006 on one side and 2009 on the other this is not counted as a diff ) — WonderLand, Oct 29 '16 at 11:18
@rock321987 I am very bad at regex, I keep forgetting them ... I have tried the pattern in the mentioned answer without any luck ( I ll add them to the question ) — WonderLand, Oct 29 '16 at 11:20
in meld press "Ctrl+H" and use this regex :- `(?s)/\*(.*?)\*/` or `/\*([\S\s]*?)\*/` — rock321987, Oct 29 '16 at 11:58
Ok, I see two asterisks. Try `/\*+[^*]*\*+([^/*][^*]*\*+)*/`. If you copy//paste the pattern from comments make sure it has no garbage chars SO adds inside for better formatting. — Wiktor Stribiżew, Oct 29 '16 at 16:19
Maybe it's not possible at all. https://mail.gnome.org/archives/meld-list/2011-December/msg00004.html I played around with meld; it finds multiline comments fine (Ctrl+h), but as soon as you use the regex as text filter in comparison, it won't accept multiline solutions. — JosefScript, Oct 31 '16 at 09:36

JosefScript · Answer 1 · 2016-10-31T10:13:24.193

0

\s*\/\*.*|\s*\*.*

Well obviously meld doesn't accept all python regex as a text filter, no multiline nor "|" inside brackets. So this solution excludes lines beginning with a star and "/*" with optional spaces. It does not filter out all php comments precisely, but may well work for your files.

Also have a look at that: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/meld-list/2011-December/msg00004.html

edited Oct 31 '16 at 10:13

answered Oct 30 '16 at 19:02

JosefScript

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 18 '18 at 13:06

0

this regex is easier for multiline usage:

  .*\/\*[^\/]+\/\s

answered Jan 18 '18 at 13:06

Sebastian Viereck

5,455
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did you try it with Meld diff program ? – WonderLand Jan 19 '18 at 04:04

Regex php multiline comment (Meld)

2 Answers2