(PHP 4 >= 4.3.0, PHP 5)
mb_regex_set_options — Set/Get the default options for mbregex functions
Sets the default options described by options for multibyte regex functions.
The options to set. This is a a string where each character is an option. To set a mode, the mode character must be the last one set, however there can only be set one mode but multiple options.
| Option | Meaning | 
|---|---|
| i | Ambiguity match on | 
| x | Enables extended pattern form | 
| m | '.' matches with newlines | 
| s | '^' -> '\A', '$' -> '\Z' | 
| p | Same as both the m and s options | 
| l | Finds longest matches | 
| n | Ignores empty matches | 
| e | eval() resulting code | 
| Mode | Meaning | 
|---|---|
| j | Java (Sun java.util.regex) | 
| u | GNU regex | 
| g | grep | 
| c | Emacs | 
| r | Ruby | 
| z | Perl | 
| b | POSIX Basic regex | 
| d | POSIX Extended regex | 
The previous options. If options is omitted, it returns the string that describes the current options.
It's a bit trickier, than patryk wrote:
There are parameters (you can specify several of these at the same time):
'i': ONIG_OPTION_IGNORECASE;
'x': ONIG_OPTION_EXTEND;
'm': ONIG_OPTION_MULTILINE;
's': ONIG_OPTION_SINGLELINE;
'p': ONIG_OPTION_MULTILINE | ONIG_OPTION_SINGLELINE;
'l': ONIG_OPTION_FIND_LONGEST;
'n': ONIG_OPTION_FIND_NOT_EMPTY;
'e': eval() resulting code
And there are "modes" (if you specify several of these, the LAST one will be used):
'j': ONIG_SYNTAX_JAVA;
'u': ONIG_SYNTAX_GNU_REGEX;
'g': ONIG_SYNTAX_GREP;
'c': ONIG_SYNTAX_EMACS;
'r': ONIG_SYNTAX_RUBY;
'z': ONIG_SYNTAX_PERL;
'b': ONIG_SYNTAX_POSIX_BASIC;
'd': ONIG_SYNTAX_POSIX_EXTENDED;
You can find descriptions of these constants here: http://www.geocities.jp/kosako3/oniguruma/doc/API.txt
Supported options are:
i - ONIG_OPTION_IGNORECASE
x - ONIG_OPTION_EXTEND
m - ONIG_OPTION_MULTILINE
s - ONIG_OPTION_SINGLELINE
p - ONIG_OPTION_MULTILINE | ONIG_OPTION_SINGLELINE
l - ONIG_OPTION_FIND_LONGEST
n - ONIG_OPTION_FIND_NOT_EMPTY
j - ONIG_SYNTAX_JAVA
u - ONIG_SYNTAX_GNU_REGEX
g - ONIG_SYNTAX_GREP
c - ONIG_SYNTAX_EMACS
r - ONIG_SYNTAX_RUBY
z - ONIG_SYNTAX_PERL
b - ONIG_SYNTAX_POSIX_BASIC
d - ONIG_SYNTAX_POSIX_EXTENDED
e - eval() resulting code
Constants above are from Oniguruma regexp library, which is used internally. Default value for PHP 5.2.x is 'pr'.