# If you'd like to omit non-matching lines from the result; add ';d' to the end of the expression.
sed -E 's/\s+(https?.+?)(<|\s)/ <a href="$1">$1<\/a>$2/gm;t' <<< "<h1>Hello</h1>
Visit this link: http://www.link1.com<br />
Visit this link: http://www.link1.com <br />
Visit this link: http://www.link1.com/some_other_words <br />
And <strong>this</strong>:
<a href=\"http://www.link2.com\">http://www.link2.com</a>"
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for SED, please visit: https://www.gnu.org/software/sed/manual/html_node/The-_0022s_0022-Command.html