def read_pattern(text_str, patterns, terminate_on_match=False,
                 postprocess=str):
    """
        General pattern reading on an input string

        Args:
            text_str (str): the input string to search for patterns
            patterns (dict): A dict of patterns, e.g.,
                {"energy": r"energy\\(sigma->0\\)\\s+=\\s+([\\d\\-.]+)"}.
            terminate_on_match (bool): Whether to terminate when there is at
                least one match in each key in pattern.
            postprocess (callable): A post processing function to convert all
                matches. Defaults to str, i.e., no change.

        Renders accessible:
            Any attribute in patterns. For example,
            {"energy": r"energy\\(sigma->0\\)\\s+=\\s+([\\d\\-.]+)"} will set the
            value of matches["energy"] = [[-1234], [-3453], ...], to the
            results from regex and postprocess. Note that the returned values
            are lists of lists, because you can grep multiple items on one line.
    """

    compiled = {
        key: re.compile(pattern, re.MULTILINE | re.DOTALL)
        for key, pattern in patterns.items()
    }
    matches = defaultdict(list)
    for key, pattern in compiled.items():
        for match in pattern.finditer(text_str):
            matches[key].append([postprocess(i) for i in match.groups()])
            if terminate_on_match:
                break
    return matches