Re: term-mode doesn't recognize "set window title" instruction

[York Zhao]

This is exactly what I was looking for. Your post is super informative,
thank you so much.

I'm in bed now, will try it tomorrow.

Thanks again!

On Nov 22, 2016 11:31 PM, "Bob Proulx" <bob@proulx.com> wrote:

> York Zhao wrote:
> > In my .bashrc file, I have the following to set the terminal window title
> > and customize the shell prompt:
> >
> >   PS1='\[\033]0;${PWD//[^[:ascii:]]/?}\007\]' # set window title
> >   PS1="$PS1"'\u@\h $ '             # user@host $<space>
> >
> > The first line makes the current directory shown as the title of the
> > terminal window, and the prompt would be shows as:
> >
> >   york@linux-host $
> >
> > However, the first line which sets the terminal window title confused the
> > term-mode, and the following is what gets shown in term-mode buffer:
> >
> >   0;/home/yorkyork@linux-host $
> >
> > Of course the problem can be addressed by removing the first line in my
> > .bashrc file which sets the title of terminal window. However, I would
> love
> > to know if there's a way to allow the terminal window title to be shown,
> > while at the same time, also making Emacs term-mode happy!
>
> At one level the problem you are running into is that you are using a
> terminal specific escape sequence that is specific to one type of
> terminal and are not checking first to see if that is valid for that
> terminal type and you are running a different type of terminal where
> it is not valid.
>
> You may be unaware that the terminal environment is declared by using
> the TERM variable to hold the name of the terminal type.  The
> capabilities of the terminal are described in the terminfo / termcap
> terminal capabilities database.  Programs use that database to look up
> escape sequences that they want to use.  (One example is "tput" which
> is a standalone program that can query the database and emit the
> proper escape sequences appropriate for the current $TERM value.)
>
> A command line user will see many different TERM types.  Screen and
> tmux users will see TERM=screen within a screen session.  Emacs users
> will see either TERM=dumb or TERM=eterm-color.  I use xterms and
> therefore I see TERM=xterm in my terminal windows.  Others will see
> gnome or konsole or whatever.  The world is not yet 100% homogeneous
> yet and the differences can not yet be ignored.
>
> Bash ships with a default .bashrc file and the Debian packaging of it
> has this:
>
> # If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir
> case "$TERM" in
> xterm*|rxvt*)
>     PROMPT_COMMAND='printf "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME}:
> ${PWD/$HOME/~}\007"'
>     PS1="\[\e]0;${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h: \w\a\]$PS1"
>     ;;
> esac
>
> That is one example.  There are others.  If your .bashrc file
> protected your title setting escape sequences to terminals that
> supported it then you wouldn't have any problems inside your emacs
> shell-mode.
>
> Checking emacs shell-mode you will find that TERM=dumb and in
> terminal-mode it is TERM=eterm-color.  Neither of those terminals
> support setting the title.
>
> At another level another problem is that you are using PS1 when you
> should really be using PROMPT_COMMAND.  Using PS1 requires protecting
> the non-printable characters of the prompt with \[...\] as you are
> doing in your example.  However if you were using PROMPT_COMMAND then
> no such protection is needed.  It is simpler.  You should be using
> PROMPT_COMMAND for this instead of PS1.
>
> > However, I would love to know if there's a way to allow the terminal
> > window title to be shown, while at the same time, also making Emacs
> > term-mode happy!
>
> You do go and ask if there is some way to make use of this
> information.  The answer as far as I know is no there isn't.  Neither
> of the current shell-mode and terminal-mode terminal emulations
> support doing this.  No one has programmed them for it.  Sorry.
>
> This doesn't mean that couldn't ever support it.  If someone were to
> spend the effort to add that functionality then they should support
> it.  But as far as I know this features is not yet supported.
>
> Note that if you were to add that feature please be aware that many
> people will not want titles consume precious space.  Please make it
> possible to avoid titles for people who are happy with the current
> behavior without titles.  Because a lot of that is extra redundant
> information with information that PS1 can provide in the prompt and
> Emacs can provide in the mode line.  Personally I would hate to give
> up even one more line of vertical space for this since it already
> exists in my prompt or in my mode line.
>
> Good luck and Happy Hacking!
>
> Bob
>