How to set the title of an urxvt window?

Question

Hello,
I have read the manpage and FAQ on the urxvt website, but my problem persists:
When I try to set the title of an urxvt window, for example:
$ urxvt -title test
then the new window shows for a second the title "test" and then switches  to "username@hostname:~".
Yes, I have
case $TERM in
xterm*|*rxvt*|Eterm|eterm|rxvt-unicode|urxvt)
PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME%%.*}:${PWD/$HOME/~}\007"'
screen)
PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033_${USER}@${HOSTNAME%%.*}:${PWD/$HOME/~}\033\\"'
esac
in my .bashrc.
But I think, the explicit command line option "-title" should break the .bashrc, right?
The default setting by .bashrc is intentional, but in this specific case I would like to set the window title by hand.
How can I do that?
Last edited by indianahorst (2011-06-22 11:01:34)

Answer 1

I would recommend that you not use the PROMPT_COMMAND to set your bash prompt at all.  Use the PS1 environment variable. By using PROMPT_COMMAND, you are invoking a subshell each time you hit return; which is most likely unnecessary.
In fact, you are probably already setting PS1 in your .bashrc; and that is what is changing your window title.  You can set PS1 to a different value, and then it will not reset your window title with each command.
Just set PS1 in your .bashrc to:
PS1="[\u@\h \W]\$ "
You can see a more complete list of the available \u, \H, etc. options here.
If you do wish to reset the urxvt window title by setting PS1, do the following:
PS1="[\u@\h \W]\$ "
PS1="\[\e]2;\u \W\a\]$PS1"
Edit:  As I look at this a little closer, I see that your PROMPT_COMMAND is indeed setting your window title.  You could change it to the following:
PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "${USER}@${HOSTNAME%%.*}:${PWD/$HOME/~}"'
But I would still not use PROMPT_COMMAND and just set PS1 instead.
Last edited by rockin turtle (2011-06-23 03:53:57)