Set iTerm2 title to current buffer in vim

.vimrc

" 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()

Ok, I figured it out, how to do what I want as per my above comment.
Here it is, I changed the 3rd & 5th lines:
(compare to the code above)

" Set the title of the Terminal to the currently open file
function! SetTerminalTitle()
    let titleString = expand('$USER@$HOSTNAME: ') . expand('%:~')
    if len(titleString) > 0
        let &titlestring = expand('$USER@$HOSTNAME: ') . expand('%:~')
        " 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

this will display something like this: USER@HOSTNAME: ~/path/to/working/directory
also with ssh the USER@HOSTNAME will be changed to that of the ssh session.

Worked with iTerm2 build 3.1.5. Thank you!

This is awesome! Thank you for this.

One thought – it doesn't look like this plays well with vim-airline Super small issue, but it looks like there's a highlighted box in the top left:

Any idea how to get around this?

[Edit]

Looks like adding :edit at the bottom of the function "refreshes" the buffer and fixes things, but it feels hacky

thanks, it works really well!

👍 Thank you, works like a charm.

The problem with this solution is that it triggers redraws whenever you switch to a new buffer (specially visible when you are switching between panels in a window). The actual fix for this is to correctly set the escape sequence for title setting in iTerm2:

From my vimrc:

""" Fix titles for iTerm2 tabs
" iTerm2 uses an special escape sequence to set titles. The default
" 'title start' and 'title finish' sequences in vim can only set the
" iTerm2 title for single-tab windows. As soon as you open a new window,
" your title will be obscured by your iTerm2's default title.
"
" The solution is to set the iTerm2 magic sequences instead of the
" generic default ones in vim. Note that these are *escape sequences*
" and not just literal characters (control+v <esc>, and control+v control+g)
"
" See the following:
"   https://linux.die.net/HOWTO/Xterm-Title-3.html
"   https://www.iterm2.com/faq.html
"   https://vim.fandom.com/wiki/Automatically_set_screen_title
set t_ts=^[];
set t_fs=^G

IMPORTANT: Please note that those are not literal ^G or ^[ -- those are escape sequences, you need to use (control+v , and control+v control+g) in INSERT mode, respectively

This works, but adds ~1,200 ms to my vim startup time.
I measured with "vim --startuptime vim.log somefile.txt"

Thank you, this saved me a bunch of time tinkering with it myself and made life a little bit easier!