I want to NOT have a two character patern in the middle part.

(?!re).

[download]

is for regexps what 

[^a]

[download]

is for characters. So 

(?(?!re).)*

[download]

would restrict the presence of the regexp like 

[^a]*

[download]

would restrict the presence of characters where .* would otherwise be used.

You can combine this trick with the code in the example for (??{...}) in perlre (which handles nested parens).

In reply to Re: need regex help to strip things like embedded C comments by ikegami
in thread need regex help to strip things like embedded C comments by Eradicatore

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