10.1 Naming Windows (Titles)

You can customize each window’s name in the window display (viewed with the windows command (see Windows) by setting it with one of the title commands. Normally the name displayed is the actual command name of the program created in the window. However, it is sometimes useful to distinguish various programs of the same name or to change the name on-the-fly to reflect the current state of the window.

The default name for all shell windows can be set with the shelltitle command (see Shell). You can specify the name you want for a window with the ‘-t’ option to the screen command when the window is created (see Screen Command). To change the name after the window has been created you can use the title-string escape-sequence (ESC k name ESC \) and the title command (C-a A). The former can be output from an application to control the window’s name under software control, and the latter will prompt for a name when typed. You can also bind predefined names to keys with the title command to set things quickly without prompting.