This Zsh plugin puts current command and working directory in your terminal title. It can also set tmux window name and pane title.

Configuration

Outside of tmux there's no real configuration to consider. The plugin simply sends an OSC sequence and the terminal emulator changes its window title accordingly.

When running under tmux, things get complicated:

• we now have at least three "titles": terminal emulator window title, tmux window name and tmux pane title,
• any of which can be configured to be updated automatically by tmux itself (i.e. independent of this plugin),
• there's no single "good" configuration that will work for everybody, because that depends on tmux workflow.

Here's a configuration that works for me:

0. Do not use this plugin to set the tmux window name, let tmux manage it.

   Either set:

   TERM_TITLE_SET_MULTIPLEXER=0
   

   in plugin configuration

   or

   disallow all application originating name changes:

   set -g allow-rename 0
   

   in tmux configuration.

   The reason for this is: if you set the window name, tmux will not update it when switching panes (even if you have enabled automatic window renaming). This is confusing, so - don't do it.

1. Optionally enable tmux automatic window renaming:

   set -g automatic-rename 1
   

   and set the format of automatically updated names to include pane title (or it's part):

   set -g automatic-rename-format " #I:#{=30:pane_title}#F "
   

   Note: the above is basically a workaround to make the choose-window command easier to use in older tmux versions. Since tmux version 2.6 choose-window is an alias for choose-tree -w; this makes the workaround redundant.

2. Remove the pane title from other formats used in the status line - it is superfluous there when it is also visible in window names. By default, pane_title is included in status-right format, along with the clock, so if you want to keep the clock:

   set -g status-right " %H:%M %d-%b-%y"
   

3. Enable updating of the terminal emulator window title:

   set -g set-titles on
   

   and set its format to include tmux pane title, e.g.:

   set -g set-titles-string "#h:#S:#{pane_title} #{session_alerts}"
   

UTF-8 in titles

If you want UTF-8 characters in XTerm window title, set the utf8Title resource to true. This can be achieved by placing the following in your ~/.Xresources file:

XTerm*vt100.utf8Title: true

Also note that the titleModes resource overrides utf8Title. For details see the XTerm manual.

Non printable characters

Both XTerm and urxvt define the title string as:

A text parameter composed of printable characters

Therefore, unprintable characters are removed when setting the title.

Using echo vs. printf

From XTerm manual:

Window Titles

Some scripts use echo with options -e and -n to tell the shell to interpret the string "\e" as the escape character and to suppress a trailing newline on output. Those are not portable, not recommended. Instead, use printf (POSIX).

Sources of information about the escape codes / control sequences

• XTerm: XTerm Control Sequences (the ctlseqs.ms file),
• rxvt-unicode / urxvt: the rxvt-unicode reference, man 7 urxvt, XTerm Operating System Commands section,
• tmux: the tmux manual, man tmux, NAMES AND TITLES section.

Acknowledgments

• Title and Hardstatus
• xterm title/screen title+hardstatus