Change Title of Terminal Window to Verbose Info useful at Login

echo -ne "\033]0;`id -un`:`id -gn`@`hostname||uname -n|sed 1q` `who -m|sed -e "s%^.* $pts/[0-9]*$.*($.*$)%[\1] (\2)%g"` [`uptime|sed -e "s/.*: $[^,]*$.*/\1/" -e "s/ //g"` / `ps aux|wc -l`]\007"

I usually have 5 or more ssh connections to various servers, and putting this command in my .bash_profile file makes my putty window or x terminal window title change to this easily recognizable and descriptive text. Includes the username, group, server hostname, where I am connecting from (for SSH tunneling), which device pts, current server load, and how many processes are running. You can also use this for your PROMPT_COMMAND variable, which updates the window title to the current values each time you exec a command. I prefix running this in my .bash_profile with [[ ! -z "$SSH_TTY" ]] && which makes sure it only does this when connecting via SSH with a TTY. Here's some rougher examples from http://www.askapache.com/linux-unix/bash_profile-functions-advanced-shell.html # If set, the value is executed as a command prior to issuing each primary prompt. #H=$((hostname || uname -n) 2>/dev/null | sed 1q);W=$(whoami)

#export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${W}@${H}:${PWD/#$HOME/~} ${SSH_TTY/\/dev\//} [`uptime|sed -e "s/.*: \([^,]*\).*/\1/" -e "s/ //g"`]\007"'

#PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;`id -un`:`id -gn`@`hostname||uname -n 2>/dev/null|sed 1q` `command who -m|sed -e "s%^.* \(pts/[0-9]*\).*(\(.*\))%[\1] (\2)%g"` [`uptime|sed -e "s/.*: \([^,]*\).*/\1/" -e "s/ //g"` / `command ps aux|wc -l`]\007"'

#[[ -z "$SSH_TTY" ]] || export PROMPT_COMMAND #[[ -z "$SSH_TTY" ]] && [[ -f /dev/stdout ]] && SSH_TTY=/dev/stdout And here's a simple function example for setting the title: function set_window_title(){ echo -e "\033]0; ${1:-$USER@$HOST - $SHLVL} \007"; }

Sample Output

askapache:tombs@crypt.gpl [pts/3] (etherape.dreamhost.com) [0.06 / 411]

By: AskApache

2009-09-19 06:57:53

echo bash hostname group who whoami uname putty username PROMPT_COMMAND SSH_TTY

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What Others Think

Excellent, but how do I change back the title when logging off?

ubersoldat · 793 weeks and 1 day ago

rahimhh21 · 117 weeks and 3 days ago

Perfecthomepugs · 109 weeks ago

pugpuppies95 · 71 weeks ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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