Set the iTerm tab title to the current directory, not full path.

current-dir-in-iterm-tab-title.sh

# put this in your .bash_profile
if [ $ITERM_SESSION_ID ]; then
  export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033];${PWD##*/}\007"; ':"$PROMPT_COMMAND";
fi

# Piece-by-Piece Explanation:
# the if condition makes sure we only screw with $PROMPT_COMMAND if we're in an iTerm environment
# iTerm happens to give each session a unique $ITERM_SESSION_ID we can use, $ITERM_PROFILE is an option too
# the $PROMPT_COMMAND environment variable is executed every time a command is run
# see: ss64.com/bash/syntax-prompt.html
# we want to update the iTerm tab title to reflect the current directory (not full path, which is too long)
# echo -ne "\033;foo\007" sets the current tab title to "foo"
# see: stackoverflow.com/questions/8823103/how-does-this-script-for-naming-iterm-tabs-work
# the two flags, -n = no trailing newline & -e = interpret backslashed characters, e.g. \033 is ESC, \007 is BEL
# see: ss64.com/bash/echo.html for echo documentation
# we set the title to ${PWD##*/} which is just the current dir, not full path
# see: stackoverflow.com/questions/1371261/get-current-directory-name-without-full-path-in-bash-script
# then we append the rest of $PROMPT_COMMAND so as not to remove what was already there
# voilà!

@garyking @runtimee did you try Profiles > (your profile) > Terminal > [x] "Terminal may report window title"? I'm not 100% certain that's the cause but I had the same issue, selected that, opened a new tab in the profile and it worked again.

FWIW I use Fish shell now which just has a fish_title function you can override so I don't really check in on this snippet.

stopped working for me too

stopped working for me too [2]. Checking the Profiles > (your profile) > Terminal > [x] "Terminal may report window title" didn't work for me.

Mine also stopped working.
iTerm2 v3.3.3
OSX 10.14.6
Rolled back to iTerm2 v3.3.2 did not fix it.

The tcsh version I had to do this (which I copied from here long, long ago) also stopped working this evening after I logged in, for no obvious reason.

iTerm2 v3.3.3
macOS 10.14.6

Kind of a disaster for me.....

according to the changelog for 3.3.3 on https://iterm2.com/downloads.html says

Improvements
- Change the default tab/window title to show the
  job name.

it might have made changes to the default profile if that was the one you were using "/

Ah! That was really useful, many thanks. The solution appears to be fiddle with Preferences->General and change the "Title" box to something (like "Name" -- I also unchecked "Job Name") which allows the "Applications in terminal may change the title" box to be checked. After I did that, the directory names came back as the tab titles, so I guess the script I run is allowed through.

Thanks @dvbowen, that worked perfectly.

Thanks @dvbowen!
For clarity, here's what Preferences > Profile should look like:

And .zshrc:

DISABLE_AUTO_TITLE="true"

precmd() {
  # sets the tab title to current dir
  echo -ne "\e]1;${PWD##*/}\a"
}

The above solution worked for me. 👍

Thanks for that too @dcastro.
I added an answer here: https://superuser.com/a/1481956/767288 with your suggestion.

I always get this --> bash: ::echo: command not found when I open my vscode terminal

Update: I always get this error everytime I open new terminal on vscode or every command on iterm
bash: ::echo: command not found

This is my script: (working but always show bash error: :echo: command not found)
export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033];${PWD##*/}\007";':"$PROMPT_COMMAND";

To fix the bash error :echo: command not found, remove this one --> :"$PROMPT_COMMAND";
export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033];${PWD##*/}\007"';

@kenjoegolo that makes it sound like you modified the prompt command multiple times. The ':"$PROMPT_COMMAND"; postfix is meant to preserve any existing prompt command but it seems like your existing prompt command must start with "echo", thus why ":echo" is not found. You could add a space after the colon to fix this. Obviously, if the other piece is working, then the actual echo program is available. With the old string including postfix, what is the output of echo $PROMPT_COMMAND?

For me, using zsh, adding add-zsh-hook precmd tab_title was necessary.

DISABLE_AUTO_TITLE="true"
tab_title() {
  # sets the tab title to current dir
  echo -ne "\e]1;${PWD##*/}\a"
}
add-zsh-hook precmd tab_title

Thanks Man.

When I connect via ssh path shown as ...<path>

This gist is pure gold.

This kind of confuses if two panels is open in a single window

Thanks @dvbowen!
For clarity, here's what Preferences > Profile should look like:

And .zshrc:

DISABLE_AUTO_TITLE="true"

precmd() {
  # sets the tab title to current dir
  echo -ne "\e]1;${PWD##*/}\a"
}

The above solution worked for me. 👍

+1

Is there a way to show just ~ when I'm in my home directory, and the current directory otherwise? I tried all kinds of things to nmodify ${PWD##/} to do that but can't get it to work. I know that this works: ${PWD/#$HOME/~}
But it shows the whole path when not in home directory. I tried this:
${PWD##/#$USER/~}
But this didn't work.

fish shell has a nice prompt_pwd function for this that makes sure the PWD string is compact & uses ~ for the home directory, but that's not helpful if you're using another shell.

You should just be able to add some logic to your prompt, psuedocode for it being "if PWD = $HOME then print '~' else print PWD".

Tried that but didn't work. I found a different workaround though. Instead of setting PROMPT_COMMAND, you can add the code that changes the tab name to PS1, like this:
PS1="[\033]0;\W\007]\w $ "
This shows me the full path at the command prompt but only the last directory in the tab name, or ~ if I'm in the home dir. This is perfect for me. Thanks

Thanks @dvbowen!
For clarity, here's what Preferences > Profile should look like:

And .zshrc:

DISABLE_AUTO_TITLE="true"

precmd() {
  # sets the tab title to current dir
  echo -ne "\e]1;${PWD##*/}\a"
}

Success! Thank your

This is just perfect! Thanks

Below is what I am using and it is much simple and memory efficient

DISABLE_AUTO_TITLE="true"
echo -ne "\e]1;\a"

Then open the settings for iTerm2 and select PWD from the title dropdown.

Now the tab title for iTerm2 will look something like below:

Hi, the correct line (for bash) should be:

export PROMPT_COMMAND="${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND; }echo -ne \"\033];\${PWD##*/}\007\""

in order to properly append to an existing PROMPT_COMMAND

Source: /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal on macOS Ventura

Hi, the correct line (for bash) should be:

export PROMPT_COMMAND="${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND; }echo -ne \"\033];\${PWD##*/}\007\""

in order to properly append to an existing PROMPT_COMMAND

Source: /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal on macOS Ventura

This fixed the problem I was having, similar to @kenjoegolo above: any time I ran source ~/.bash_profile I would get bash: :echo: command not found, which would persist. Each successive time I ran source ~/.bash_profile, the number of times bash: :echo: command not found displayed would increment (and persist).
Once I replaced the export with @Offirmo 's version, the problem stopped.

Thanks @dvbowen! For clarity, here's what Preferences > Profile should look like:

And .zshrc:

DISABLE_AUTO_TITLE="true"

precmd() {
  # sets the tab title to current dir
  echo -ne "\e]1;${PWD##*/}\a"
}

Working like a charm ! 🔥🚀