iTerm2 – How to Change Window and Tab Titles in Zsh

command lineitermosx-snow-leopardzsh

I want to label the window tabs of terminal sessions. I'm using the zshell in iterm2 on OSX. Is it possible to change the label of a window tab dynamically in the terminal?

Best Answer

You can enter the following in zsh to set the window title of iTerm2:

echo -ne "\e]1;this is the title\a"

If you want to automate that to insert e.g. the current time or working directory, edit your zsh configuration files to set the title in the precmd() function to e.g. $PWD.

echo -ne "\e]1;$PWD\a"

You can read about the precmd function in man zshmisc in the section SPECIAL FUNCTIONS.

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Related Solutions

AppleScript – Set Up to Open New iTerm2 Tab and Change Directory

Daniel's solution somehow opens a new Window – also, the exec command statement does not work as expected. One has to write text instead.

Also, you have to use

launch session "Default Session"

in order to get a new tab.

The following does what you asked for:

tell application "iTerm"
    make new terminal
    tell the current terminal
        activate current session
        launch session "Default Session"
        tell the last session
            write text "cd ~/Downloads; clear; pwd"
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

How to stop automatic changing of iterm tab titles

Go to Iterm's Preferences > Profiles > Terminal

Uncheck "Terminal may set tab/window title"

Now you can name your tab, ssh into a server, exit and still keep the original tab name.

Credit to: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/iterm2-discuss/czV-sv4ykzI

Cheers, Alan

Best Answer

Related Solutions

AppleScript – Set Up to Open New iTerm2 Tab and Change Directory

How to stop automatic changing of iterm tab titles

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