python - Matching everything after series of hyphens -

i'm trying capture remaining text in file after 3 hyphens @ start of line (---).

example:

 above first set of hyphens should not captured.  ---  content. should captured. sets of 3 hyphens beyond point should ignored. 

everything after first set of 3 hyphens should captured. closest i've gotten using regex [^(---)]+$ works slightly. capture after hyphens, if user places hyphens after point instead captures after last hyphen user placed.

i using in combination python capture text.

if can me sort out regex problem i'd appreciate it.

pat = re.compile(r'(?ms)^---(.*)\z') 

the (?ms) adds multiline , dotall flags.

the multiline flag makes ^ match beginning of lines (not beginning of string.) need because --- occurs @ beginning of line, not beginning of string.

the dotall flag makes . match character, including newlines. need (.*) can match more 1 line.

\z matches end of string (as opposed end of line).

for example,

import re  text = '''\     above first set of hyphens should not captured.  ---  content. should captured. sets of 3 hyphens beyond point should ignored. '''  pat = re.compile(r'(?ms)^---(.*)\z') print(re.search(pat, text).group(1)) 

prints

this content. should captured. sets of 3 hyphens beyond point should ignored. 

---

note when define regex character class brackets, [...], stuff inside brackets (in general, except hyphenated ranges a-z) interpreted single characters. not patterns. [---] not different [-]. in fact, [---] range of characters - -, inclusive.

the parenthese inside character class interpreted literal parentheses too, not grouping delimiters. [(---)] equivalent [-()], character class including hyphen , left , right parentheses.

thus character class [^(---)]+ matches character other hyphen or parentheses:

in [23]: re.search('[^(---)]+', 'foo - bar').group() out[23]: 'foo '  in [24]: re.search('[^(---)]+', 'foo ( bar').group() out[24]: 'foo ' 

you can see going, , why not work problem.