How can I set the window title in Bash? I do know that in Windows Batch it is TITLE.
36 Answers
Here is a nice function to do it:
# Allow the user to set the title.
function title { PROMPT_COMMAND="echo -ne \"\033]0;$1 (on $HOSTNAME)\007\""
}Put that in your ~/.bashrc, then type "title whatever" to set the title. If you want to get rid of the hostname, remove "(on $HOSTNAME)".
Edit: make sure to . ~/.bashrc (aka source ~/.bashrc) before trying, of course.
I have this VT100 escape sequence defined in .bashrc.
PS1_SET_TITLE='\[\e]0;\u@\h:\w\a\]'
PS1="${PS1_SET_TITLE}" my other prompt components
export PS1For my home directory it displays alex@host:~, when I change directories, they are updated in window title.
Works with CYGWIN and PuTTY terminal sessions. I usually don't run X, but when I did it worked fine with XTerm.
Read PROMPTING section of bash man page on available switches for PS commands, e.g \u \h \w.
Wrote a function title. It supports echo-like escape sequences and -e + -E.
title () { echo -ne "\e]0;" echo -n "$@" echo -ne "\a"
}I put it in my .bash folder and sourced it from .bash/global.rc.
If you are using "mintty" (the default terminal of Cygwin since end 2011), add the following in .bashrc :
function title { export WINDOWTITLE=$1
}
export PS1='\[\e]0;$WINDOWTITLE:\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h \[\e[33m\]~\w\[\e[0m\]\n\$'and reopen your terminal and type "title ThisIsMyTitle"
1Here is some code to set window title in bash - an improved version, that doesn't remove
previous prompt string (and changes to it are temporary), of another answer (quoted below):
function title { export WTITLE=$1
}
PS1_old="$(echo $PS1 | sed -En 's/(.+)\\e](.+)/\1\\\\e]\2/g; s/(.+ )(.+)/\1\\n\2/p')";
_PS1='\[\e]0;$WTITLE: \w\a\]';_PS1+="$PS1_old ";export PS1=$_PS1;
# A command to use in bash (shell) scripts, replaces
# the above function that is for a "~/.bashrc" file:
export WTITLE="[for example \u@\h, insert title here]"If you are using "mintty" (the default terminal of Cygwin since end 2011),
add the following in.bashrc:function title { export WINDOWTITLE=$1 } export PS1='\[\e]0;$WINDOWTITLE:\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h \[\e[33m\]~\w\[\e[0m\]\n\$'and reopen your terminal and type "title ThisIsMyTitle"
- quote from this answer.
0We need more information: The answer will depend on what terminal you're using, not what shell. Is this in an xterm? An rxvt? A cygwin window on windows? Etc.
(danben's answer works for xterms, and probably for rxvt terminals)
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