Ubuntu – Set title for each terminal tab in gnome-terminal using a bash script

I suppose you can use a gnome-terminal custom command for each profile, for example

bash -c 'PROFILE=default_profile exec bash'

or

bash -c 'PROFILE=screen_profile exec screen -U'

or similar.

Then in ~/.bashrc

if [[ -n $PROFILE ]]; then
    HISTFILE=~/.bash_history."$PROFILE"
fi

Why do you want to do it without modifying your PS1 variable? That is the correct way to do it.

If you run the following, you'll get what you want:

export PS1="\[\e]0;\W\a\]${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ "

This is just taking the default prompt:

export PS1="\[\e]0;\u@\h: \w\a\]${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ "

... and replacing \u@\h: \w with \W.

You can do the same thing with any command that echoes the right escape code:

echo -en "\e]0;${PWD##*/}\a"

... but then you'd be constantly fighting bash to stop it from doing it using PS1 (the best way).