OSC 0

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Experimental

OSC 0 sets both the icon name and the window title of the terminal. It is the most commonly used title-setting sequence, emitted by default in many shell prompt configurations.

Syntax

OSC 0 ; Pt BEL
OSC 0 ; Pt ST

Formal syntax

OSC0 = 0x1b, "]", "0", ";", text, ( 0x07 | 0x1b, "\\" ) ;
text = character, { character } ;

Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default
Pt	The text string to use as both the icon name and window title	(none)

Description

Per the XTerm control sequences documentation, OSC 0 sets both the icon name and the window title to the string Pt. The icon name historically referred to the label displayed when a window was iconified (minimized) in X11 window managers. In modern desktop environments, the icon name is largely vestigial, and most terminals treat OSC 0 as functionally equivalent to setting the window title alone.

The text parameter Pt is a free-form string. It is terminated by either BEL (0x07) or ST (String Terminator, ESC ). BEL is more commonly used in practice because it is a single byte and avoids potential parsing issues.

Many shell configurations emit OSC 0 from the prompt to display the current working directory or running command in the terminal's title bar. For example, Bash's default PROMPT_COMMAND often includes an OSC 0 sequence.

note

OSC 0 sets both the icon name and window title simultaneously. Use OSC 1 to set only the icon name, or OSC 2 to set only the window title.

Examples

# Set window title to "My Terminal"
printf '\e]0;My Terminal\a'

# Set window title using ST terminator
printf '\e]0;My Terminal\e\\'

# Set title to current directory (common in shell prompts)
printf '\e]0;%s\a' "$PWD"

Specifications

Specification	Section
XTerm ctlseqs	—

Terminal support

Terminal	Support	Version	Notes
Terminal Emulators
Alacritty	~	Yes	Icon names not supported per escape_support.md:95
Bobcat	✓	0.9.0	WhenTitle callback set up from initial release
contour	✓	v0.1.0	Sets both icon and window title
foot	✓	Yes	Sets icon and window title, osc.c:1299-1301
Ghostty	✓	v1.0.0
iTerm2	✓	v20260216-nightly
Kitty	✓	Yes	Sets both icon and window title
Konsole	✓	Yes	IconNameAndWindowTitle enum value 0 in src/session/Session.h:412
mintty	✓	Yes	Implemented at termout.c:4686, sets window title (ignores icon title)
mlterm	✓	rel-2_9_1
PuTTY	✓	Yes	Sets both icon and window title (terminal.c:3203-3214)
Rio	✓	v0.0.28
rxvt-unicode	✓	rxvt-unicode-2.0	Sets both icon name and window title
st	✓	0.4
terminology	✓	v0.1.0
VT100	✗	No
VTE	✓	Yes	OSC 0 (XTERM_SET_WINDOW_AND_ICON_TITLE) handled in vteseq.cc
WezTerm	✓	Yes	OSC 0 SetIconNameAndWindowTitle - see wezterm-escape-parser/src/osc.rs:34,306,458
Windows Terminal	✓	Yes	SetIconAndWindowTitle case in ActionOscDispatch, calls SetWindowTitle
xterm	✓	Yes	OSC 0 sets both icon name and window title (OSC_IconBoth in misc.c:3480)
xterm.js	✓	0.3
Multiplexers
cy	✓	Yes
GNU Screen	✓	v.4.2.0
tmux	✓	0.8	Requires allow-set-title option
tuios	✓	v0.0.15
Zellij	✓	v0.12.0

See also

• OSC 2 — Set Window Title — Sets only the window title without affecting the icon name
• BEL — The bell character commonly used as OSC string terminator