How to automatically set iTerm2 tab title to the filename opened in vim?

Question

I can get the vim title to display on my window by doing this:

let &titlestring = expand("%:t") . " @ " . hostname()
if &term == "screen"
  set t_ts=^[k
  set t_fs=^[\
endif
if &term == "screen" || &term == "xterm"
  set title
endif

But the tabs will say "Default".

From the commandline I can do this:

echo -ne "\e]1;hello world\a"

And that'll show "Hello World" in my tabs.

Is there a way to have vim write this stuff to my tab instead of title instead?

score 12 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 07 '20 at 00:47

12

This works for me:

" Set the title of the Terminal to the currently open file
function! SetTerminalTitle()
    let titleString = expand('%:t')
    if len(titleString) > 0
        let &titlestring = expand('%:t')
        " this is the format iTerm2 expects when setting the window title
        let args = "\033];".&titlestring."\007"
        let cmd = 'silent !echo -e "'.args.'"'
        execute cmd
        redraw!
    endif
endfunction

autocmd BufEnter * call SetTerminalTitle()

Source: https://gist.github.com/bignimbus/1da46a18416da4119778

edited Oct 07 '20 at 00:47

Rob Bednark

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answered Feb 25 '18 at 16:03

mgaw

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man, I have looked for this for quite a bit, it works perfectly here. Also combined with this to avoid full path on the other tabs https://superuser.com/questions/60555/show-only-current-directory-name-not-full-path-on-bash-prompt – Peruz Dec 05 '19 at 19:31
Yes, this is the stuff! – Rodrigo García Dec 31 '19 at 07:41
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This is definitely the right answer. For later viewers you shall paste this into `.vimrc` directly. – Stan666 Jan 15 '20 at 04:29
This works, but adds ~1,200 ms to my vim start up time. – Randy J Parker Aug 28 '20 at 00:41

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:34

4

I don't have iTerm, so I can't test this, but try adding this to your .vimrc:

set t_ts=^[]1;
set t_fs=^G

Type CTRL-V Escape for ^[ and CTRL-V CTRL-G for ^G.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:34

Community

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answered Jan 20 '10 at 23:59

Laurence Gonsalves

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Unfortunately, this isn't doing it for me. I have the nightly build of iTerm and vim 7.4.488. Setting these in my vimrc doesn't have an effect on the tab title. Using the echo -e command in the iTerm2 FAQs does work for me: http://iterm2.com/faq.html – Xander Dunn Dec 29 '14 at 23:04
Same result on latest stable iTerm2. – Xander Dunn Dec 29 '14 at 23:34
1

@thoughtadvances This is in addition to setting the title and titlestring: `set title titlestring=[%F]` – Jun 20 '16 at 23:01

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 30 '21 at 16:05

Just to piggy back on user2486953's comment above.

I was able to accomplish this with two super simple lines in my ~/.vimrc:

set title
set titlestring=%f

(Lower case 'f' gives me just the filename, whereas capital gives the full path too)

i.e. I didn't have to set anything with escape sequences like the accepted answer above. I am running gnome-terminal but I don't understand why iTerm2 would be any different for a VI setting.

How to automatically set iTerm2 tab title to the filename opened in vim?

3 Answers3

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