Scribbles for my memory

WezTerm binds Alt+Enter to toggle fullscreen by default. That hijacks Alt+Enter newline in Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, and other terminal-based tools.

Drop this in ~/.wezterm.lua to disable the default and remap fullscreen to Ctrl+Shift+F11:

local wezterm = require 'wezterm'
local config = wezterm.config_builder()

config.keys = {
  {
    key = 'Enter',
    mods = 'ALT',
    action = wezterm.action.DisableDefaultAssignment,
  },
  {
    key = 'F11',
    mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
    action = wezterm.action.ToggleFullScreen,
  },
}

return config

Config takes effect immediately on save — no restart needed.

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:

1. Windows non-admins can't create symlinks unless Developer Mode is on.
2. 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.