If you've been alt-tabbing to an admin cmd window to run mklink every time you wanted a symlink on Windows, there's a much cleaner way nobody seems to mention. Two settings, set them once, forget about it.
The reason ln -s in git-bash silently turns into cp by default is two unrelated barriers stacked together:
- Windows non-admins can't create symlinks unless Developer Mode is on.
- MSYS (git-bash's runtime) doesn't even try to create native symlinks without the
MSYS env var set.
Fix the first once with admin, fix the second in your shell profile.
# Run once in admin PowerShell, or use Settings → Update & Security → For developers → Developer Mode
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppModelUnlock" `
-Name "AllowDevelopmentWithoutDevLicense" -Value 1 -Type DWord
# In ~/.bashrc
export MSYS=winsymlinks:nativestrict
nativestrict makes failures loud — ln -s errors out instead of silently copying when symlinks aren't supported. Avoid winsymlinks:native (the lenient sibling) — its silent fallback is exactly the trap you're trying to escape. Avoid winsymlinks:lnk entirely; .lnk shortcuts aren't symlinks anything else recognizes.
Open a new git-bash window and verify:
ln -s ~/.bashrc /tmp/test-link
ls -la /tmp/test-link
If the line starts with l, it's a real symlink that git, Linux tools, GNU stow, and your dotfiles install.sh all treat consistently across platforms. If it starts with -, either the env var didn't reach the new shell or Developer Mode didn't actually toggle.
Bonus: Developer Mode also unlocks Windows 11's native sudo command, so you can stop alt-tabbing to admin terminals for quick one-offs entirely.
Your Windows Terminal default tab is opening with admin privileges and you don't remember asking for it. The intuitive guess is the AppCompat Layers registry — that's where ticking "Run as administrator" on a shortcut's compatibility tab gets stored, and it persists across reinstalls. Worth checking, but it's the second place to look for WT.
The first place is settings.json:
{
"commandline": "C:\\Program Files\\Git\\bin\\bash.exe",
"elevate": true,
"guid": "{17c3a2bf-...}",
"name": "Git Bash"
}
WT 1.18+ added elevate as a per-profile flag. When it's true and that profile is also pointed to by defaultProfile, every new window silently opens elevated — no UAC prompt at the tab level because the elevation happened at WT launch. Delete the line, restart WT, done.
If you still want an admin tab on demand, add a second profile with a fresh GUID and a different name (e.g. "Git Bash (Admin)") that keeps elevate: true. You get a dropdown choice and a real UAC prompt when you actually need it, instead of unconditional elevation on every launch.
To rule out the registry side as well:
Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers"
Get-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers"
Each property name is an exe path; a value containing RUNASADMIN means that program is forced to elevate every launch. To clear one, prefer the GUI — right-click the exe → Properties → Compatibility → uncheck "Run this program as administrator" — over editing the registry by hand.
Two mechanisms, same symptom, different layers. For Windows Terminal specifically, the per-profile setting wins; check it first.
VARCHAR2(4000) means 4000 bytes, not characters. Most people know this. What's less obvious: VARCHAR2(4000 CHAR) doesn't guarantee 4000 characters either.
Under the default MAX_STRING_SIZE=STANDARD, the hard column cap is 4000 bytes regardless of whether you declared BYTE or CHAR. In AL32UTF8, a Chinese character takes ~3 bytes, so VARCHAR2(4000 CHAR) on a column storing CJK text will fail once the actual byte count exceeds 4000 — around ~1333 characters in.
To actually store 4000 CJK characters in a single VARCHAR2, the instance needs MAX_STRING_SIZE=EXTENDED (12c+), which raises the limit to 32767 bytes. This is not the default — not even in 19c — and it's a one-way migration that requires running utl32k.sql in upgrade mode. Oracle keeps it off by default precisely because it changes data dictionary behavior and breaks compatibility.
Quick check for your instance:
SELECT value FROM v$parameter WHERE name = 'max_string_size';
STANDARD = 4000-byte ceiling. EXTENDED = 32767-byte ceiling.
When scripting with Oracle SQLcl, the startup banner (version, copyright, connection info) clamps your output. The -S (silent) flag suppresses all of it:
sql -S user/password@connect_string @script.sql
This gives you clean output suitable for piping or log capture.
For even more control inside the session, pair it with:
set heading off
set feedback off
set pagesize 0
set echo off
-S is the entry-level switch. The set commands handle the rest.
AWS console offers three ways to duplicate an EC2 instance, differing in whether disk data is carried over.
Create AMI (recommended, full clone) — preserves the system disk, installed software, and all configuration.
In the EC2 console, select the target instance → Actions → Image and templates → Create image. Wait for the AMI status to become available (a few minutes to tens of minutes), then go to AMIs → select it → Launch instance from AMI. Adjust instance type, subnet, Security Group as needed.
Launch More Like This (fastest, no data) — copies only instance configuration (type, SG, subnet, tags). The system disk is brand new.
Actions → Image and templates → Launch more like this. The Launch page opens with config pre-filled; confirm and launch. Good for stateless instances, e.g. web servers initialized via userdata.
Launch Template — if the original instance had a Launch Template saved, launch directly from it. EC2 → Launch Templates → select template → Actions → Launch instance from template.
Use AMI for most cases. Use Launch More Like This when you only need the same specs with a clean disk.