# If you'd like to omit non-matching lines from the result; add ';d' to the end of the expression.
sed -E 's/\*\*(.+?)\*\*(?!\*)/<b>$1<\/b>/gm;t' <<< "some normal and **bold with * gem*** but pure *italics* is
***foo**bar***
**bold***
**a** **b**
***a* *b***"
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