wire / terminal-osc / 2

OSC 2 — Set window title

OSC 2 ; text ST sets ONLY the terminal window (tab) title to text, leaving the icon name unchanged. Written ESC ] 2 ; text ST (ST = ESC \, BEL also accepted). Use this instead of OSC 0 when you want to set the window title without touching the X11 icon name.

terminal-osc kind control-sequence status de-facto verification verified tier B terminal-escape@1

aka: set window title · OSC 2 · ESC ] 2

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OSC introducer: \x1b] ESC ] (0x1B 0x5D)

terminator (ST|BEL): ST \x1b\ · BEL \x07

parameters / subcommands

id	name	bytes (ST)	meaning
set	Set window title	\x1b]2;mytitle\x1b\	OSC 2 ; Pt ST sets the window (tab) title to the string Pt, without changing the X11 icon name.

gotchas

OSC 2 sets only the window title; OSC 0 sets both window title and icon name; OSC 1 sets only the icon name.
Control characters in the title terminate the sequence early; sanitize the string before emitting.
tmux/screen may need 'set-titles on' (tmux) to propagate child title changes to the outer terminal.
No standard query form by default in xterm; title reporting is disabled for security unless allowWindowOps is set.

provenance

source: https://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html
version: xterm ctlseqs, patch #410, 2026/04/19
retrieved: 2026-05-29 · updated: 2026-05-29T00:00:00Z

per-fact attribution:

#summary — https://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html xterm ctlseqs 'Operating System Commands': Ps = 2 -> Change Window Title to Pt. (Ps = 1 changes icon name only.)

OSC 2 — Set window title

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parameters / subcommands

gotchas

provenance

see also