24

I'd like to set the terminal title to user@host so I can easily tell which machine I'm connected to from the window title. Is there a way to do this from SSH or from GNOME Terminal?

Improve this question

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
22

Yes. Here's an example for bash using PS1 that should be distro-agnostic:

Specifically, the escape sequence \[\e]0; __SOME_STUFF_HERE__ \a\] is of interest. I've edited this to be set in a separate variable for more clarity.

# uncomment for a colored prompt, if the terminal has the capability; turned
# off by default to not distract the user: the focus in a terminal window
# should be on the output of commands, not on the prompt
force_color_prompt=yes

if [ -n "$force_color_prompt" ]; then
    if [ -x /usr/bin/tput ] && tput setaf 1 >&/dev/null; then
        # We have color support; assume it's compliant with Ecma-48
        # (ISO/IEC-6429). (Lack of such support is extremely rare, and such
        # a case would tend to support setf rather than setaf.)
        color_prompt=yes
    else
        color_prompt=
    fi
fi

TITLEBAR='\[\e]0;\u@\h\a\]'
# Same thing.. but with octal ASCII escape chars
#TITLEBAR='\[\033]2;\u@\h\007\]'

if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
    PS1="${TITLEBAR}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\W\[\033[00m\]\$ "
else
    PS1="${TITLEBAR}\u@\h:\W\$ "
fi
unset color_prompt force_color_prompt

Also note that there can be many ways of setting an xterm's title, depending on which terminal program you are using, and which shell. For example, if you're using KDE's Konsole, you can override the title setting by going to Settings->Configure Profiles->Edit Profile->Tabs and setting the Tab title format and Remote tab title format settings.

Konsole titlebar settings dialog

Additionally, you may want to check out:

Improve this answer
9
  • So do I need to set this on all of the servers I am connecting to or on my own local machine?
    – Naftuli Kay
    May 31, 2011 at 21:11
  • @TKKocheran: You need to do this on every machine where you're running a shell. If you only want to do it for remote logins, put \h in that prompt only if $SSH_CLIENT is non-empty.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    May 31, 2011 at 21:19
  • @TK : Yes, you will need to set this on all the servers you connect to. The PS1 variable is local to your current shell (even on a remote host), not the terminal program (ie: gnome-terminal).
    – TrinitronX
    May 31, 2011 at 21:20
  • I assume that this will apply differently on servers not running Debian. Can you edit your answer to provide for servers running, let's say, Fedora/Red Hat derivatives?
    – Naftuli Kay
    May 31, 2011 at 21:29
  • 1
    @TK : I tested this using SSH to various hosts from an Ubuntu 11.04 machine... So the title bar was set correctly there... If it doesn't work, try adding this sequence to the front: \[\e]2;\u@\h\a. (Also edited my response with that info)
    – TrinitronX
    May 31, 2011 at 22:14
4

Here's a version of the SSH bash script that I use which sets the remote server's title and command prompt without making any changes to the remote server.

my_ssh.sh:

#!/bin/bash
SETTP='MY_PROMPT="$HOSTNAME:$PWD\$ "'
SETTP="$SETTP;"'MY_TITLE="\[\e]0;$HOSTNAME:$PWD\a\]"'
SETTP="$SETTP;"'PS1="$MY_TITLE$MY_PROMPT"'
ssh -t $1@$2 "export PROMPT_COMMAND='eval '\\''$SETTP'\\'; bash --login"

You can invoke it by calling ./my_ssh.sh username hostname

Improve this answer
2
  • I doubt this works when starting another bash session after ssh login though (e.g. when using screen)
    – Laurens Rietveld
    Sep 16, 2014 at 10:23
  • Can this work for zsh?
    – alper
    Jul 20, 2020 at 22:59
1

The following works for me (probably only on gnome-terminal):

comp@home$ cat /usr/bin/ssh
#!/bin/bash    
echo -ne "\033]0;${1}\007"
ssh_bkup "$@"

Where ssh_bkup command is just basic 'ssh' with a changed name, which is called right after the echo command changes the current terminal's title.

Improve this answer
3
  • wouldn't an alias solutions be better than renaming commands to something non-standard ?
    – X Tian
    Jun 18, 2015 at 14:24
  • This works fine for me, also gnome-terminal. ~/bin has priority in my path, so I placed your script in my ~/bin/ssh. The last row explicitly calls to /usr/bin/ssh. This way, other users still use the standard ssh when logged in on that machine, and (since our home directories are on server, LDAP accounts) I get the functionality on whichever machine I am logged in on.
    – Gauthier
    Mar 14, 2016 at 9:17
  • Good call, @Gauthier. Seems a better solution.
    – Yuriy Mankovskiy
    Nov 1, 2016 at 17:53
0

this is alias version

SETTP='MY_PROMPT="$HOSTNAME:$PWD\$ "'
SETTP="$SETTP;"'MY_TITLE="\[\e]0;$HOSTNAME:$PWD\a\]"'
SETTP="$SETTP;"'PS1="$MY_TITLE$MY_PROMPT"'
SETPC="export PROMPT_COMMAND='eval '\\''$SETTP'\\'; bash --login"

alias myssh='function _myssh(){ ssh -t $1@$2 $SETPC; };_myssh'
Improve this answer
0

If you are using zsh, add following into .zshrc file:

export DISABLE_AUTO_TITLE="true"

precmd() {
    printf "\033];$(whoami)@$(hostname):${PWD/#$HOME/~}\007";
}
Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .