From time to time I get badly confused about which terminal window does what. This is on a Pi5 running bookworm, if it matters.

One thing that would help is causing each lxterminl window or tab to display the name of the command being run. In most cases that would be an ssh command and hostname.

Obviously, this can be done manually by using the Tabs > Name Tab menuu,
but it seems likely there'd be a setting in .config/lxterminal/lxterminal.conf which I'm unable to intuit.

Does anyone know if this is true, and if so what syntax is required?

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-02-18, bp@www.zefox.net <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

From time to time I get badly confused about which terminal window does what. This is on a Pi5 running bookworm, if it matters.

One thing that would help is causing each lxterminl window or tab to display the name of the command being run. In most cases that would be an ssh command and hostname.

Obviously, this can be done manually by using the Tabs > Name Tab menuu,
but it seems likely there'd be a setting in .config/lxterminal/lxterminal.conf
which I'm unable to intuit.

Does anyone know if this is true, and if so what syntax is required?

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

You need to write the string ESC]0;Title^G to the terminal.

I have this in a little script called xtn which does this.

To generate ESC in bash use ^V^[ where '^' is holding down the control key. ^G is done like wise. You will have to wrap the strings in quotes

e.g. echo -n "^[]0;"$1"^G"

good luck. I've just done this in LXTerminal with bash as my shell.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

From time to time I get badly confused about which terminal window does what. This is on a Pi5 running bookworm, if it matters.

One thing that would help is causing each lxterminl window or tab to display the name of the command being run. In most cases that would be an ssh command and hostname.

Obviously, this can be done manually by using the Tabs > Name Tab menuu,
but it seems likely there'd be a setting in .config/lxterminal/lxterminal.conf
which I'm unable to intuit.

Does anyone know if this is true, and if so what syntax is required?

Does this set the window title:

$ export TITLE="hello world"
$ echo -en "\e]30;$TITLE\a"

bash should set the window title to the current command, using the same
escape sequence. If it doesn't:

a) you aren't using bash. Maybe it needs to be enabled in your shell?

b) bash is not configured to set the title, I'm not sure where you'd find
that

c) your terminal is not advertising itself as a suitable type that uses the escape code. What's your TERM variable set to?

d) your terminal is choosing not to display it, for some reason (perhaps
the configuration you mention above)

Theo

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote:

On 2026-02-18, bp@www.zefox.net <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

From time to time I get badly confused about which terminal window does what.
This is on a Pi5 running bookworm, if it matters.

One thing that would help is causing each lxterminl window or tab to display >> the name of the command being run. In most cases that would be an ssh command
and hostname.

Obviously, this can be done manually by using the Tabs > Name Tab menuu,
but it seems likely there'd be a setting in .config/lxterminal/lxterminal.conf
which I'm unable to intuit.

Does anyone know if this is true, and if so what syntax is required?

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

You need to write the string ESC]0;Title^G to the terminal.

I have this in a little script called xtn which does this.

To generate ESC in bash use ^V^[ where '^' is holding down the control key. ^G is done like wise. You will have to wrap the strings in quotes

e.g. echo -n "^[]0;"$1"^G"

good luck. I've just done this in LXTerminal with bash as my shell.

It doesn't seem to do much of anything in my case. Here's a transcript: bob@raspberrypi:~$ echo $TERM
xterm-256color
bob@raspberrypi:~$ echo -n "^[]0;"$1"^G"
^[]0;^Gbob@raspberrypi:~$
bob@raspberrypi:~$

I was hoping to see the title change, but no luck. As you might
guess, my fluency with shells is abysmal. I use them only in a
very simple-minded way, usually to type single commands.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.invalid> wrote:

On 19/02/2026 03:47, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

From time to time I get badly confused about which terminal window does what.
This is on a Pi5 running bookworm, if it matters.

One thing that would help is causing each lxterminl window or tab to display
the name of the command being run. In most cases that would be an ssh command
and hostname.

Obviously, this can be done manually by using the Tabs > Name Tab menuu, >>>> but it seems likely there'd be a setting in .config/lxterminal/lxterminal.conf
which I'm unable to intuit.

Does anyone know if this is true, and if so what syntax is required?

Does this set the window title:

$ export TITLE="hello world"
$ echo -en "\e]30;$TITLE\a"

No. Neither does it trigger an error message....

bash should set the window title to the current command, using the same
escape sequence. If it doesn't:

a) you aren't using bash. Maybe it needs to be enabled in your shell?

According to /etc/passwd, bash is my login shell, running
bob@raspberrypi:~$ echo $TERM
xterm-256color

suggests that lxterm is a variant of xterm, which makes sense.

b) bash is not configured to set the title, I'm not sure where you'd find >>> that

c) your terminal is not advertising itself as a suitable type that uses the >>> escape code. What's your TERM variable set to?

As above, xterm-256color

d) your terminal is choosing not to display it, for some reason (perhaps >>> the configuration you mention above)

The configuration file at ~/.config/lxterminal/lxterminal.conf contains
quite a few entries, but none appears to be related to titles. The man
page for lxterminal doesn't give any useful hints. The config file
appears to be name=value format, Shift-ctrl-I brings up the dialog
to manually enter a title which is interpreted as a simple string.

Does

echo -en "\033]0;Hello World\007"

work?

No, it doesn't do anything visible:

bob@raspberrypi:~$ echo -en "\033]0;Hello World\007"
bob@raspberrypi:~$

so no output beyond the echoed input and no change in
the tab title. I rather wonder where the command output
went, since no error was reported.

If I'm missing something idiotic please point it out!

Thanks for writing,

bob prohaska


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

In article <10n7fpe$3lun8$2@dont-email.me>, <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Gordon Henderson <gordon+usenet@drogon.net> wrote:

In article <10n560g$2u42e$1@dont-email.me>, <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote: >>>From time to time I get badly confused about which terminal window does what.

This is on a Pi5 running bookworm, if it matters.

This is on "generic Linux" if it matters:

In ~/bin I have an executable script:

#!/bin/sh

if [ "x$*" = x ]; then
echo -n "\033];`hostname`\007"
else
echo -n "\033];$*\007"
fi

I call it 'xtt' (xterm title - works in xterm and other terminals I use)
You make it yours and call it what you like.

So xtt on it's own resets the title to your hostname (handy if you login
to many systems) othrwise it sets the title to whatever you put on the
command line

xtt silly editing session

for example

Your challenge is to make it work automatically for every command
you type.. (I don't need that functionality, I use it inside other
scripts that start stuff)

This suggestion might touch on a fundamental issue: Which host,
the ssh client or the ssh server, gets to set the window or tab
title on the client machine running RasPiOS? I've been thinking
it's the RasPiOS machine displaying the window or tab. If I'm
understanding you correctly it's the server end of the connection.
Is that correct?

It's whatever you want it to be. In my case it's the client - which to
avoid ambiguity is the system I type the ssh command on...

I'm working with only one RasPiOS workstation client and several
FreeBSD servers. I'd rather customize the workstation than the
servers, if that's possible.

Well... `hostname` returns the name of the host the script is running
on.

One way I use it is in scripts that ssh to remote systems, so rather
than type ssh frotz, I type 'frotz' which is a script in my ~/bin
directory and that script looks like:

#!/bin/sh
xtt '-> Frotz'
ssh gordon@frotz.drogon.net $*
xtt

This sets the title of the xterm I'm typing into to '-> Frotz' then
runs the ssh to the server...

When the ssh exits (ie. I logout of Frotz), the xtt command with no
arguments resets the terminal title bar to that on whatever host I typed
the command at. (either my desktop or laptop)

Gordon

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Gordon Henderson <gordon+usenet@drogon.net> wrote:

In article <10n7fpe$3lun8$2@dont-email.me>, <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

This suggestion might touch on a fundamental issue: Which host,
the ssh client or the ssh server, gets to set the window or tab
title on the client machine running RasPiOS? I've been thinking
it's the RasPiOS machine displaying the window or tab. If I'm
understanding you correctly it's the server end of the connection.
Is that correct?

It's whatever you want it to be. In my case it's the client - which to
avoid ambiguity is the system I type the ssh command on...

To expand on that, all this \033]; stuff are 'terminal escape sequences'.
They cause the app which is displaying the data stream from your terminal to set the 'window title', whatever that means in its context (typically the
tab title in a tabbed terminal window), to the string embedded in the escape sequence.

Because they're just bytes, they can be passed over an SSH connection just
like any other bytes (letters, text colour-changes, cursor movements, etc). It's then up to the receiver (the terminal app) to interpret them.

The other piece of the puzzle is that your terminal needs to be configured
for the same 'terminal escape sequence' language. There are many kinds of terminals which speak different languages, described in /etc/termcap and related files.

You (Bob) have TERM set to 'xterm-256color' which means that it's expecting terminal messages in that language. It sounds the right one to interpret
them: xterm is an X11 app where the concept of 'window title' makes sense - older terminal types like 'vt100' probably don't understand them (VT100s just had a keyboard and CRT screen - no windowing system).


Anyhow, I installed lxterminal (on Ubuntu 25.10) and I found I had the same problem. However this:

echo -e "\033]0;Hello\007" && sleep 3

does set the terminal title for 3 seconds and then it reverts to the
standard. Which suggests it's the prompt that's setting it back.

$ echo $PS1
\[\e]0;\u@\h: \w\a\]${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$

and if I drop the first part:

export PS1="${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$"

I can now set the terminal title in peace:

echo -ne "\033]0;Moo\007"

Theo

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-02-19, bp@www.zefox.net <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk> wrote:

On 2026-02-18, bp@www.zefox.net <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

From time to time I get badly confused about which terminal window does what.
This is on a Pi5 running bookworm, if it matters.

One thing that would help is causing each lxterminl window or tab to display
the name of the command being run. In most cases that would be an ssh command
and hostname.

Obviously, this can be done manually by using the Tabs > Name Tab menuu, >>> but it seems likely there'd be a setting in .config/lxterminal/lxterminal.conf
which I'm unable to intuit.

Does anyone know if this is true, and if so what syntax is required?

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

You need to write the string ESC]0;Title^G to the terminal.

I have this in a little script called xtn which does this.

To generate ESC in bash use ^V^[ where '^' is holding down the control key.
^G is done like wise. You will have to wrap the strings in quotes

e.g. echo -n "^[]0;"$1"^G"

good luck. I've just done this in LXTerminal with bash as my shell.

It doesn't seem to do much of anything in my case. Here's a transcript: bob@raspberrypi:~$ echo $TERM
xterm-256color
bob@raspberrypi:~$ echo -n "^[]0;"$1"^G"
^[]0;^Gbob@raspberrypi:~$
bob@raspberrypi:~$

Did you type '^' then '['? Instead you should type ctl-V Ctl-[
and the same for for the other control character.

It worked for me in lxterminal and the $TERM was identical to yours.

I was hoping to see the title change, but no luck. As you might
guess, my fluency with shells is abysmal. I use them only in a
very simple-minded way, usually to type single commands.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 19/02/2026 03:47, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

From time to time I get badly confused about which terminal window does what.
This is on a Pi5 running bookworm, if it matters.

One thing that would help is causing each lxterminl window or tab to display
the name of the command being run. In most cases that would be an ssh command
and hostname.

Obviously, this can be done manually by using the Tabs > Name Tab menuu, >>> but it seems likely there'd be a setting in .config/lxterminal/lxterminal.conf
which I'm unable to intuit.

Does anyone know if this is true, and if so what syntax is required?

Does this set the window title:

$ export TITLE="hello world"
$ echo -en "\e]30;$TITLE\a"

No. Neither does it trigger an error message....

bash should set the window title to the current command, using the same
escape sequence. If it doesn't:

a) you aren't using bash. Maybe it needs to be enabled in your shell?

According to /etc/passwd, bash is my login shell, running
bob@raspberrypi:~$ echo $TERM
xterm-256color

suggests that lxterm is a variant of xterm, which makes sense.

b) bash is not configured to set the title, I'm not sure where you'd find
that

c) your terminal is not advertising itself as a suitable type that uses the >> escape code. What's your TERM variable set to?

As above, xterm-256color

d) your terminal is choosing not to display it, for some reason (perhaps
the configuration you mention above)

The configuration file at ~/.config/lxterminal/lxterminal.conf contains
quite a few entries, but none appears to be related to titles. The man
page for lxterminal doesn't give any useful hints. The config file
appears to be name=value format, Shift-ctrl-I brings up the dialog
to manually enter a title which is interpreted as a simple string.

Does

echo -en "\033]0;Hello World\007"

work?

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 19/02/2026 16:54, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.invalid> wrote:

Does

echo -en "\033]0;Hello World\007"

work?

No, it doesn't do anything visible:

bob@raspberrypi:~$ echo -en "\033]0;Hello World\007"
bob@raspberrypi:~$

so no output beyond the echoed input and no change in
the tab title. I rather wonder where the command output
went, since no error was reported.

If I'm missing something idiotic please point it out!

Does your PS1 keep overwritting the window title?
Does the window title change if you, say, change directory?



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-02-18 at 20:43 AST, Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

From time to time I get badly confused about which terminal window does what.
This is on a Pi5 running bookworm, if it matters.

One thing that would help is causing each lxterminl window or tab to display >> the name of the command being run. In most cases that would be an ssh command
and hostname.

Obviously, this can be done manually by using the Tabs > Name Tab menuu,
but it seems likely there'd be a setting in .config/lxterminal/lxterminal.conf
which I'm unable to intuit.

Does anyone know if this is true, and if so what syntax is required?

Does this set the window title:

$ export TITLE="hello world"
$ echo -en "\e]30;$TITLE\a"

I realize that the conversation has moved on, but for anyone coming in late...

There is a '3' in the above line which should not be there.

Try
$ echo -en "\e]0;$TITLE\a"

Jim

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Jim Diamond <zsd@jdvb.ca> wrote:

On 2026-02-18 at 20:43 AST, Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

From time to time I get badly confused about which terminal window does what.
This is on a Pi5 running bookworm, if it matters.

One thing that would help is causing each lxterminl window or tab to display
the name of the command being run. In most cases that would be an ssh command
and hostname.

Obviously, this can be done manually by using the Tabs > Name Tab menuu, >> but it seems likely there'd be a setting in .config/lxterminal/lxterminal.conf
which I'm unable to intuit.

Does anyone know if this is true, and if so what syntax is required?

Does this set the window title:

$ export TITLE="hello world"
$ echo -en "\e]30;$TITLE\a"

I realize that the conversation has moved on, but for anyone coming in late...

There is a '3' in the above line which should not be there.

Try
$ echo -en "\e]0;$TITLE\a"

They both work for me (in Konsole). According to:
$ zless /usr/share/doc/xterm/ctlseqs.txt.gz

Code | Sun | CDE | XTerm | Description
OSC 0 ST | - | yes | yes | set window and icon title
OSC 1 ST | - | yes | yes | set icon label
OSC 2 ST | - | yes | yes | set window title
OSC 3 ST | - | n/a | yes | set X server property


where OSC ('operating system command') is 'ESC ]' in 7-bit mode (0x9b in
8-bit mode) and ST ('sequence terminator') is 'ESC \' or 0x9c. So it looks like the first 3 is overridden by the second 0 as there's no OSC 3 0 ST
command listed.

Theo

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.11
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)