Bdtyktl

I've found the following function, placed in my ~/.bashrc to be helpful:

function title {

    echo -ne "33]0;"$*"07"

}

Then I can call it from my bash prompt as follows:

> title I want a pony!

And my tab gets titled accordingly.

run this command to set the title of your tab or window:

export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "33]0;YOUR NAME HERE07"'

i've added the following to my ~/.bash_profile to always list the current directory relative to my home dir:

export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "33]0;${PWD/#$HOME/~}07"'

useful when you have 100 minimized terminals in your dock

hat tip to mac world

Add this function to your ~/.bash_profile file and it should work.

function title ()

{

    TITLE=$*;

    export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "33]0;$TITLE07"'

}

I used solutions similar to the above for quite a while, but I use enough tabs that I also want them color-coded for easy visual reference. So I whipped up tabset, a utility to set the tab title, badge, and color based on the kind of work I am doing in each tab.

It requires node, but that is now a commonly installed platform. To install:

npm install -g iterm2-tab-set

I like this one:

#setup terminal tab title

function title {

    if [ "$1" ]

    then

        unset PROMPT_COMMAND

        echo -ne "33]0;${*}07"

    else

        export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "33]0;${PWD/#$HOME/~}07"'

    fi

}

title

It will let you toggle the name of a tab between a custom name and a default of your CWD.

title -> your tab title will be ~/YOUR_CWD/

title hey there -> your tab title will be hey there

I really like taylorstine's answer, but it breaks iTerm2's shell integration which relies on the PROMPT_COMMAND variable. You can modify Taylor's code to correct this by adding the __bp_precmd_invoke_cmd back into the PROMPT_COMMAND any time you tinker with it:

# iTerm2 shell integration

test -e "${HOME}/.iterm2_shell_integration.bash" && source "${HOME}/.iterm2_shell_integration.bash"



# iTerm2 tab titles

function title {

    if [ "$1" ]

    then

        export PROMPT_COMMAND='__bp_precmd_invoke_cmd'

        echo -ne "33]0;${*}07"

    else

        export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "33]0;${PWD/#$HOME/~}07";__bp_precmd_invoke_cmd'

    fi

}

title

I like Michael's answer.

But what if .iterm2_shell_integration.bash does not exist?

Here's my take:

# iTerm2 shell integration

test -e "${HOME}/.iterm2_shell_integration.bash" && source "${HOME}/.iterm2_shell_integration.bash"



# iTerm2 tab titles

function title {

  if [ "$1" ] ; then

    test -e "${HOME}/.iterm2_shell_integration.bash" 

      && export PROMPT_COMMAND='iterm2_preexec_invoke_cmd' 

      || unset PROMPT_COMMAND

    echo -ne "33]0;${*}07"

  else

    test -e "${HOME}/.iterm2_shell_integration.bash" 

      && export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "33]0;${PWD/#$HOME/~}07";iterm2_preexec_invoke_cmd' 

      || export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "33]0;${PWD/#$HOME/~}07"'

  fi

}

title

If you're working with Profiles (which is very convenient):
Preferences -> Appearance -> Window & Tab Titles: tick 'Show profile name':

That's how it looks after:

Preferences -> Profiles -> Terminal

  uncheck Terminal may set Tab/Window title

Max Cantor's comment worked for me.

I think Automatic Profile Switching and Badges are exactly designed for what you need:

Automatic Profile Switching iTerm2 can use information it knows about your current path, host name, and user name to change profiles. For example, your window's background color or the terminal's character encoding could change when connecting to different hosts.

Badges
You can put a badge in the top right of your terminal showing information about the current session. It can show your username, hostname, or even custom data like the current git branch.

so the result may like this:

I would like to extend B Seven's answer a little for absolute clarity.

Since most of us would like to know how can one set a title of a tab even when they are not in local shell, instead of in remote shell (e.g over ssh).

Step 1. Preferences -> Profiles -> Terminal
uncheck Terminal may set Tab/Window title


Step 2. For each tabs, double click on the tab -> Session Title

Now, whatever you'd set in the session title, it would stay as is.

Yuk, all those aliases and functions. Easier solution (if you are root), paste this into a terminal:

TARGET=/usr/bin/title

sudo tee "$TARGET" <<'EOF'

#!/usr/bin/env bash

echo -ne "33]0;$*07"

EOF

sudo chmod 755 "$TARGET"

Or just make a file call title somewhere in your path, or global path, and paste the two lines between EOF.