GNU screen tab gets renamed whenever I type a command

command linegnu-screenwindow title

When I use gnu screen, in other tabs, I ssh into other machines, rename the tab accordingly, and do work normally. The tab name sticks.

In a fresh tab, which is just a terminal on the original machine, whenever I type any command, the tab gets renamed to the current working directory.

Example:

/////////// here's how everything looks beforehand

    [me@mac ~]$
    [ me ][0*$ me@mac:~  1-$ web01  2$ dev03

////////// setting the tab name

    [me@mac ~]$ 
    Set window's title to: test
    [ me ][0*$ test  1-$ web01 clone  2$ dev03 clone

//////// typing a command: pwd

    [me@mac ~]$ pwd
    /home/me
    [me@mac ~]$
    [ me ][0*$ me@mac:~  1-$ web01 clone  2$ dev03 clone

and the tab is renamed back to the current working dir. This doesn't happen in any tab where I'm ssh'd into another machine. So I thought this might be an issue of my personal settings, but there doesn't seem to be anything in my .bashrc, .bash_profile or .screenrc files that has to do with titles.

Best Answer

Your shell configuration is setting the terminal title to the command that's currently running. It's a fairly common configuration. Since it's done by the shell, it isn't done if the shell is running on another machine with a different shell configuration. The escape sequence to set the Screen window title is ␛kTITLE␛\ where ␛ is the escape character (byte value 27).

In bash, look for code that emits this escape sequence. The escape character is probably represented as \e or \033. The code could be in the prompt (PS1) or in the command that's executed before displaying a new prompt after running a command (PROMPT_COMMAND). Check their values (taking care not to emit the escape sequences to the terminal in case they contain a literal escape character):

printf 'PS1=%s\nPROMPT_COMMAND=%s\n' "$PS1" "$PROMPT_COMMAND" | cat -v

It's also possible but less common to emit this escape sequence before running a command, via the DEBUG trap:

trap -p DEBUG

These variables (or the trap) would have to be set in the bash configuration, either yours or system-wide: normally ~/.bashrc, and /etc/bash.bashrc on some systems, but also possibly ~/.bash_profile, ~/.profile, /etc/profile or ~/.bash_login, or a file included by one of these. You can narrow it down by running a new shell with fewer settings:

env -i bash                  # no environment variables or per-user settings
env -i HOME="$HOME" bash     # no environment variables, normal interactive shell
env -i HOME="$HOME" bash -l  # no environment variables, login shell
HOME=/none bash              # skips your per-user settings

A comparison on which of those exhibits the problem will tell you whether the settings come from your settngs or system-wide ones, and whether they're from .bashrc (read by interactive shells) or from a login-time file (.profile, etc.).

Related Solutions

GNU Screen – How to Change New Window Name

Make your shell change the window title every time it changes directory, or every time it displays a prompt.

For your ~/.bashrc:

if [[ "$TERM" == screen* ]]; then
  screen_set_window_title () {
    local HPWD="$PWD"
    case $HPWD in
      $HOME) HPWD="~";;
      $HOME/*) HPWD="~${HPWD#$HOME}";;
    esac
    printf '\ek%s\e\\' "$HPWD"
  }
  PROMPT_COMMAND="screen_set_window_title; $PROMPT_COMMAND"
fi

Or for your ~/.zshrc (for zsh users):

precmd () {
  local tmp='%~'
  local HPWD=${(%)tmp}
  if [[ $TERM == screen* ]]; then
    printf '\ek%s\e\\' $HPWD
  fi
}

For more information, look up under Dynamic titles in the Screen manual, or under “Titles (naming windows)” in the man page.

Force title on GNU screen

Depends how things are set up, but by default, something like this should work.

settitle() {
    printf "\033k$1\033\\"
}

Then run:

settitle NEWTITLE.

See screen title docs and GNU screen faq for more details.

Given Ctrl+A A is only changing it until the next command, it's probably being set by $PS1 (all shells), or $PROMPT_COMMAND/DEBUG trap (bash only) or precmd/preexec (zsh only).

You should look for any place that \e or \033 appears with k or \\ after it, basically like my settitle example above.

UPDATE

You said you had a custom preexec.

Why not change it to this:

if [[ "$TERM" == "screen" ]]; then
   local CMD=${1[(wr)^(*=*|sudo|-*)]}
   echo -n "\ek${TITLE:-$CMD}\e\\"
fi

Then you can set a custom title by running:

TITLE="my title"

and unset the title by running

TITLE=

Don't forget to change precmd and $PS1 as well if necessary.

ASIDE

You could even extend this to all terminals (e.g. xterm, gnome-terminal, etc.) by not hard coding the \ek and \e\\.

This is how I do it:

terminit()
{
    # determine the window title escape sequences
    case "$TERM" in
    aixterm|dtterm|putty|rxvt|xterm*)
        titlestart='\033]0;'
        titlefinish='\007'
        ;;
    cygwin)
        titlestart='\033];'
        titlefinish='\007'
        ;;
    konsole)
        titlestart='\033]30;'
        titlefinish='\007'
        ;;
    screen*)
        # status line
        #titlestart='\033_'
        #titlefinish='\033\'
        # window title
        titlestart='\033k'
        titlefinish='\033\'
        ;;
    *)
        if type tput >/dev/null 2>&1
        then
            if tput longname >/dev/null 2>&1
            then
                titlestart="$(tput tsl)"
                titlefinish="$(tput fsl)"
            fi
        else
            titlestart=''
            titlefinish=''
        fi
        ;;
    esac
}


# or put it inside a case $- in *i* guard
if test -t 0; then
    terminit
fi

# set the xterm/screen/etc. title
settitle()
{
    test -z "${titlestart}" && return 0

    printf "${titlestart}$*${titlefinish}"
}

Then you can change your preexec to:

if [[ "$TERM" == "screen" ]]; then
   local CMD=${1[(wr)^(*=*|sudo|-*)]}
   settitle "${TITLE:-$CMD}"
fi

Best Answer

Related Solutions

GNU Screen – How to Change New Window Name

Force title on GNU screen

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