A better fix for #tab-titles-are-too-long #2373

zadjii-msft · 2019-08-09T16:16:14Z

Summary of the Pull Request

Add a startingTitle setting. This will act just like setting the lpTitle
member of a STARTUPINFO, which is similar to how cmd and powershell being
started from a shortcut works today. cmd and powershell will read their
initial title and keep it around, instead of setting the title like bash
does. When commands in cmd are executed, cmd will append them to the end of
this value, like cmd currently does when started from the "Command Prompt"
shortcut.

Also adds default startingTitles to cmd, powershell, and pwsh.

This is accomplished with a change to conhost.exe to plumb the lpTitle down
to the child process it's starting. This shouldn't necessarily regress
anything, since starting conhost directly and having conhost start a
executable on the caller's behalf is a relatively new and undocumented
scenario.

Here's what it looks like for cmd, powershell, and ubuntu. I set the Ubuntu startingTitle to "Ubuntu", which was immediately overridden when bash started. Cmd is running ping -t github.com, which you can see appended to the tab title like usual.

References

literally every issue that mentions the length of the tab title, but #2327 was the one that broke the camel's back.

Also is a way better solution than #2348.

PR Checklist

Closes #the-endless-stream-of-complaints-about-tab-titles
CLA signed. If not, go over here and sign the CLA
Tests added/passed
Requires documentation to be updated
I discussed this with Dustin yesterday. Turns out it was very doable.

Add a `startingTitle` setting. This will act just like setting the `lpTitle` member of a `STARTUPINFO`, which is similar to how cmd and powershell being started from a shortcut works today. `cmd` and `powershell` will read their initial title and keep it around, instead of setting the title like `bash` does. When commands in `cmd` are executed, cmd will append them to the end of this value, like cmd currently does when started from the "Command Prompt" shortcut. Also adds default `startingTitle`s to `cmd`, `powershell`, and `pwsh`. This is accomplished with a change to conhost.exe to plumb the `lpTitle` down to the child process it's starting. This shouldn't necessarily regress anything, since starting conhost directly and having conhost start a executable on the caller's behalf is a relatively new and undocumented scenario.

DHowett-MSFT

I am a hundred percent okay with this. Should it be initialTitle? We already have other initial settings, but we also have a startingDirectory . . .

DHowett-MSFT · 2019-08-09T16:23:42Z

We need to consider what this means for CreatePseudoConsole (CreatePseudoConsoleExW)

zadjii-msft · 2019-08-09T16:43:08Z

@DHowett-MSFT This will be easy for CreateaPseudoConsole, since we'll be creating the child process.

carlos-zamora · 2019-08-09T16:44:18Z

doc/cascadia/SettingsSchema.md

@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ Properties listed below are specific to each unique profile.
 | `padding` | _Required_ | String | `0, 0, 0, 0` | Sets the padding around the text within the window. Can have three different formats: `"#"` sets the same padding for all sides, `"#, #"` sets the same padding for left-right and top-bottom, and `"#, #, #, #"` sets the padding individually for left, top, right, and bottom. |
 | `snapOnInput` | _Required_ | Boolean | `true` | When set to `true`, the window will scroll to the command input line when typing. When set to `false`, the window will not scroll when you start typing. |
 | `startingDirectory` | _Required_ | String | `%USERPROFILE%` | The directory the shell starts in when it is loaded. |
+| `startingTitle` | Optional | String | | The title to pass to the shell on startup. Some shells (like `bash`) may choose to ignore this initial value, while others (`cmd`, `powershell`) may use this value over the lifetime of the application. |


default should be empty string

Should we add a note at the bottom of the doc saying what the defaults are for the generated profiles? Or maybe that's something for a completely different user doc?

Also maybe specifying the specific difference between startingTitle and tabTitle?

Default is unset, not empty string. Distinction!

DHowett-MSFT · 2019-08-09T17:12:58Z

I think we should rationalize the names startingTitle and tabTitle before shipping this. I always thought tabTitle should be tabTitleOverride... because it honestly makes it sound like tabTitle could be replaced with this new behavior

DHowett-MSFT

only nits but i want to think about the naming and implication for existing settings

src/cascadia/TerminalConnection/ConhostConnection.cpp

zadjii-msft · 2019-08-09T18:43:16Z

@DHowett-MSFT I'm also certainly not sure on the name. I was originally going to go with "shortcutTitle" but that seemed ridiculous when I wrote it - no one outside the console team understands console shortcuts well.

"initialTitle" and "startingTitle" both seem pretty similar to me, but I'm not a PM. Words aren't my job. Summoning @cinnamon-msft and @bitcrazed.

Frankly, until #1320 lands, I think that tabTitle is a strictly worse option than startingTitle, but once #1320 does land, the two might be very powerful in conjunction. I'm going to await some guidance from our PM colleagues on naming here.

DHowett-MSFT · 2019-08-11T21:48:59Z

Controversial: what if we just always push the profile name into Conhost? Maybe we don’t need a new setting for this particular feature. Consider that the profile is the same as the .LNK and previously we used the LNK name as the title?

DHowett-MSFT · 2019-08-11T21:50:28Z

Oh oh and we then make it so that tabTitle is this setting for if you want it to be different from the profile. We would get rid of the Overriding aspect (which I think is a feature that nobody truly wanted when it was only a static name)?

zadjii-msft · 2019-08-12T12:55:50Z

@DHowett-MSFT I don't hate the idea of using the profile.name as the starting title. I'd be curious if anyone wanted a separate value for it, because that would be impossible to do with that implementation.

However, I think that tabTitle should maybe stay reserved for #1320, when the overriding will make more sense. Though, we could always add a new setting then if we really wanted.

zadjii-msft · 2019-08-13T13:22:35Z

@DHowett-MSFT @carlos-zamora @cinnamon-msft @bitcrazed @miniksa
In preparation for today's later discussion on this topic, I tried to write up scenarios and proposed solutions. @ me if I forgot any scenarios here.

User Stories:

A user wants to be able to use the executable path as their starting title
- Does anyone want this?
A user wants to be able to set a custom starting title, but have that title be overridable
A user wants to be able to set an overridable starting title, different from the profile name
- Presumably someone will want this
A user totally wants to ignore the VT title and use something else
- This will make more sense in the post #1320 "Support runtime variables in the custom user title" settings

Solutions:

name, startingTitle, tabTitle (the PR as it exists currently)
- a. name is only ever used as the profile name.
- b. If startingTitle isn't set, then the executable path is used
- c. If startingTitle is set, it's used as the initial title
- d. If tabTitle is set, it overrides the title from the terminal
- e. Current users of tabTitle need to manually update to the new behavior.
name as starting title, tabTitle as a different starting title
- a. name is used as the starting title and the profile name in the dropdown
- b. If tabTitle is set, we'll use that as the overridable starting title instead.
- c. In the future, dynamicTabTitle or tabTitleOverride could be added to support #1320
- d. Current users of tabTitle automatically get the new (different!) behavior.
- e. User Story 1 is impossible
  - Does anyone want the behavior ever? Perhaps making that scenario impossible is good?
name unchanged, tabTitle as the starting title
- a. name is only ever used as the profile name.
- b. If tabTitle is set, we'll use that as the overridable starting title.
- c. In the future, dynamicTabTitle or tabTitleOverride could be added to support #1320
- d. Current users of tabTitle automatically get the new (different!) behavior.
name as starting title, tabTitle as different starting title, suppressApplicationTitle Boolean to force it to override
- a. name, tabTitle work as in Solution 2.
- b. When someone wants to be able to statically totally override that title (story 4), they can use suppressApplicationTitle
- c. suppressApplicationTitle name is WIP
- d. We'll add suppressApplicationTitle when someone complains
- e. If you really want story 1, use tabTitle: c:\path\to\foo.exe and suppressApplicationTitle.

We've decided to pursue path 4. I'll update the PR in the morning.

…ng-title

…ting title if set, otherwise use the name.

src/cascadia/TerminalConnection/ConhostConnection.cpp

ghost · 2019-08-14T20:21:18Z

Hello @zadjii-msft!

Because this pull request has the AutoMerge label, I will be glad to assist with helping to merge this pull request once all check-in policies pass.

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DHowett-MSFT · 2019-08-14T23:16:11Z

SA build is failing due to disk space.

IanKemp · 2019-08-22T07:02:50Z

Dear god I need this. When will you guys be dropping a new release that contains this functionality? Seriously, a release just for this feature would be acceptable at this point.

ghost · 2019-08-27T16:09:24Z

🎉Windows Terminal Preview v0.4.2382.0 has been released which incorporates this pull request.:tada:

Handy links:

Uxorious · 2019-08-29T15:48:06Z

d. We'll add suppressApplicationTitle when someone complains

Not a complaint, but I would love this :-)

sth4me · 2019-08-30T08:12:08Z

Any option can overrides the title Or just always shows in the tab?When I ssh to a server,I want to know server name I custom.

thongtrinh2204 · 2019-09-25T06:00:47Z

@zadjii-msft can you please add suppressApplicationTitle feature? I need it on WSL, my tab titles are too long...

zadjii-msft · 2019-09-25T12:25:03Z

@thongtrinh2204 hey look, it's already in PR #2814

thongtrinh2204 · 2019-09-25T12:48:01Z

@thongtrinh2204 hey look, it's already in PR #2814

Sounds good. Can wait for the next release.

zadjii-msft added Area-Settings Issues related to settings and customizability, for console or terminal Product-Terminal The new Windows Terminal. Issue-Task It's a feature request, but it doesn't really need a major design. labels Aug 9, 2019

zadjii-msft requested review from carlos-zamora, DHowett-MSFT and miniksa August 9, 2019 16:16

zadjii-msft mentioned this pull request Aug 9, 2019

Hot take: we set the tab title for cmd and powershell by default #2348

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joandrsn mentioned this pull request Aug 9, 2019

Added initial docs for customizing windows terminal #2374

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DHowett-MSFT mentioned this pull request Aug 11, 2019

Unable to overwrite custom tabTitle from within shell #2393

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zadjii-msft mentioned this pull request Aug 12, 2019

Show up Administer: at some place when terminal starts with Administer mode #2396

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zadjii-msft added 2 commits August 14, 2019 09:36

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/master' into dev/migrie/f/starti…

024b5b1

…ng-title

Remove tabTitle's overriding behavior, use the tabTitle as the star…

0914051

…ting title if set, otherwise use the name.

zadjii-msft requested a review from DHowett-MSFT August 14, 2019 16:39

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don't allocate 1B unless we really really need to

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zadjii-msft added the AutoMerge Marked for automatic merge by the bot when requirements are met label Aug 14, 2019

DHowett-MSFT merged commit 82de43b into master Aug 14, 2019

DHowett-MSFT deleted the dev/migrie/f/starting-title branch August 14, 2019 23:16

aedm mentioned this pull request Sep 3, 2019

"suppressApplicationTitle" doesn't work (or exist.) #2645

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A better fix for #tab-titles-are-too-long #2373

A better fix for #tab-titles-are-too-long #2373

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A better fix for #tab-titles-are-too-long #2373

A better fix for #tab-titles-are-too-long #2373

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Summary of the Pull Request

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User Stories:

Solutions:

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