Jtdcftul

from @Maythux, this one works for my needs to disregard my auto-prompt current-directory on terminal.

PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -en "33]0;New terminal titlea"'

Instruction

Change the string on "New Terminal Name" with $("pwd"):

PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -en "33]0; $("pwd") a"'

This will automatically change the title even when you add a new tab.

I use the setting below which looks better, you can also play bash programming and set your own.

PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -en "33]0;$(whoami)@$(hostname)|$(pwd|cut -d "/" -f 4-100)a"'

Add this setting to your ~/.bashrc.

When the PS1 sets the title, any attempt to set the title using a command or PROMPT_COMMAND will fail, since the prompt is printed after all of them. For this reason, I prefer to keep a simple prompt while testing titles (PS1=$; unset PROMPT_COMMAND).

It is very likely that PROMPT_COMMAND is set and it is overwriting your choice of title every time the prompt is displayed. Try unsetting it and then issuing your title command:

PROMPT_COMMAND=

echo -en "33]0;New terminal titlea"

From https://askubuntu.com/a/774543/455406, a bash-specific solution is to create a custom function (see e.g. this how-to) like

# function to set terminal title  

function set-title() {

  if [[ -z "$ORIG" ]]; then

    ORIG=$PS1

  fi

  TITLE="[e]2;$*a]"

  PS1=${ORIG}${TITLE}

}

which allows you to call set-title <name you want to set it to>

You can do it, either in CLI or GUI(I suppose you are using gnome-terminal, you can do for others just replace the name of app):

In CLI Run the command:

gconftool-2 --set /apps/gnome-terminal/profiles/Default/title --type=string "New Terminal Name"

Note: the new name is applied to all instances of terminal tabs, and not for the only current tab.

Or from GUI:

Go to Menu: Terminal --> Set Title --> Enter new title then save.

Now Why your command not work?

You should add this line to the .bashrc file and not directly to your terminal.

gedit .bashrc

Add this line:

PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -en "33]0;New terminal titlea"'

Then save and source the bashrc file.

source .bashrc

Instructions

1. Add settitle() to your .bashrc.


2. source ~/.bashrc


3. settitle Banana

settitle()

function settitle()

{

    if [ $# -eq 0 ]

        then

        eval set -- "\u@\h: \w"

    fi



    case $TERM in

        xterm*) local title="[33]0;$@07]";;

        *) local title=''

    esac

    local prompt=$(echo "$PS1" | sed -e 's/\[\033]0;.*\007\]//')

    PS1="${title}${prompt}"

}

Using bash, wmctrl, xprop, ps

1) For a long-running active program:

For example, start a program (ranger) running in a terminal, started from the desktop, change the title, once, after some delay ( 5 seconds ) when the program starts :

startranger.sh:

#!/bin/bash

/usr/local/bin/changetitle.sh 5 ranger

/usr/local/bin/ranger

changetitle.sh:

#!/bin/bash

delay="$1"

shift

wintitle="$*"

winid=`xprop -root | grep _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | head -1 | awk '{print $5}' | sed 's/,//' | sed 's/^0x/0x0/'`

/bin/bash -c "sleep $delay; wmctrl -i -r $winid -N "$wintitle"" &

2) If you are running a terminal session without running an active program, update the title on a loop that ends when your terminal exits:

changetitleloop.sh 1 maintenance for server

running the above will update the title of the current terminal every 1 second even if you cd (can change it multiple times), using:

changetitleloop.sh

#!/bin/bash

interval="$1"

shift

wintitle="$*"

termpid="$(ps -p $$ -o ppid= | sed -e 's/^[ t]*//')"

winid=`xprop -root | grep _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW | head -1 | awk '{print $5}' | sed 's/,//' | sed 's/^0x/0x0/'`

/bin/bash -c "ss=$$; echo $ss > /tmp/term-$termpid.pid; while x=$(wmctrl -i -r $winid -N "$wintitle"); ret=$?; sleep $interval; owner=$(cat /tmp/term-$termpid.pid); [ $ret -eq 0 ] && [ $ss -eq $owner ]; do continue; done;" &

Based on @muru answer

PS1 sets the title, any attempt to set the title using a command or PROMPT_COMMAND will fail, since the prompt is printed after all of them

This worked in my Elementary S.O :

PS1='u:W$ '

PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -en "33]0;New terminal titlea"'

I execute this in each new tab :

And as the previous image shows, I have several tabs with unique name.

16.04.1-Ubuntu

This thread may be a little old, but here is a solution that works for me:

https://blog.programster.org/ubuntu-16-04-set-terminal-title

Simply edit your $HOME/.bashrc file and add the following function:

set-title(){

ORIG=$PS1

TITLE="e]2;$@a"

PS1=${ORIG}${TITLE}

}

Now whenever you want to set the title of your terminal, just enter
something like:

set-title "my awesome terminal title"

One solution may be to install the latest version of tmux.

tmux allows setting per-pane titles, enabled by this command:

tmux set -g pane-border-status top

They can also be displayed on the bottom.

Titles are then set via an escape sequence:

printf '33]2│;%s33\' 'My Pane Title'

Each pane can have its own title and all titles show all the time.

The tmux panes will then look like this:

──0 "My Pane Title"──────┬──1 "Another Pane"───────

>                        │>

This was tested on linux mint 18.2 (like Ubuntu) with tmux 2.8. Installation was from a tarball.

If you want to be more productive in your terminal, tmux offers lots of other features too.