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I cannot install any tools like screen or xproc on the box. I dont need to modify the title, I only need to find the window title name.

echo -e "\033]0;[title]\07"; modifies the title I know. But I just want to know the existing title name.

Bootham Deyyam
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    does https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/122870/117549 do it for you? – Jeff Schaller Nov 12 '18 at 15:27
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    or possibly https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/274386/117549 – Jeff Schaller Nov 12 '18 at 15:28
  • my os does not recognize those as commands – Bootham Deyyam Nov 12 '18 at 16:39
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    `printf '\e[21t'` should cause your terminal to return its title in the form `\e]title\e\\ `. I'll try to wrap that in a script if they don't delete your question until then. –  Nov 12 '18 at 16:46
  • I tried the above and got the result below, this is definitely in the right direction, as I was not getting any output before. print "\033[21t" >$(tty) IFS='' read -t 3 -r a output : ^[]l^[\ – Bootham Deyyam Nov 13 '18 at 15:38
  • Hi Anyone who can help me with my question? I am still struggling with this thing, I know there is some command like print "\033[21t::\007". Please help if anyone knows the answer to it. – Bootham Deyyam Nov 14 '18 at 22:28
  • X Window name may be different what you see on the screen, am I wrong? – 炸鱼薯条德里克 Nov 20 '18 at 06:10
  • I smell a possible XY problem (https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/66377) here. What do you need it for? Isn't for example saving and restoring the title sufficient for you? – egmont Nov 20 '18 at 16:04

1 Answers1

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Try the following, but notice that the compatibility is pretty limited. See the notes below.

get_title(){(
        set -e
        ss=`stty -g`; trap 'exit 11' INT QUIT TERM; trap 'stty "$ss"' EXIT
        e=`printf '\033'`; st=`printf '\234'`; t=
        stty -echo -icanon min 0 time "${2:-2}"
        printf "${1:-\033[21t}" > "`tty`"
        while c=`dd bs=1 count=1 2>/dev/null` && [ "$c" ]; do
                t="$t$c"
                case "$t" in
                $e*$e\\|$e*$st)
                        t=${t%$e\\}; t=${t%$st}; printf '%s\n' "${t#$e\][lL]}";
                        exit 0;;
                $e*);;
                *) break;;
                esac
        done
        printf %s "$t"; exit 1
)}

Example:

$ get_title
$ title=`get_title`

Or, if your script's stdin is not the terminal:

$ title=`get_title </dev/tty`

The stty + dd kludge tries to make sure that the script won't just block if the terminal doesn't report anything in response to the \e[21t escape. This (or a better) approach could be also used with other control sequences (eg. to get the cursor position).

Notes:

Since the \e[21t escape is considered "insecure", extra configuration is needed in order to make it work:

For xterm: echo '*.vt100.allowWindowOps: true' | xrdb -override

For urxvt: echo 'Rxvt.insecure: true' | xrdb -override

It will not work at all in vte-based terminals like gnome-terminal, mate-terminal, xfce4-terminal, etc, since they report either a fake ("Terminal") or empty title in response.

mlterm doesn't need anything special, but it will crash (!) if the title wasn't set before with \e]2;TITLE\a (that bug was fixed in the current sources).

screen will report its own window title (the one that was set with the -t option or the C-a A command, not the title of the window it's running in.

It's blocked and not supported in tmux.

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    Thank you very much for your help. Much appreciated – Bootham Deyyam Dec 03 '18 at 23:09
  • @Bootham_Deyyam , since it appears that this answer works for you, you should mark it as correct (click the check mark under the votes). In my opinion, you should also up-vote it. This is a great solution. – bballdave025 Apr 24 '20 at 19:11