How to change the title of an xterm

• ESC]0;stringBEL – Set icon name and window title to string
• ESC]1;stringBEL – Set icon name to string
• ESC]2;stringBEL – Set window title to string

An xterm title of username@hostname: directory:

    echo -n "\033]0;${USER}@${HOST}\007"

For bash

    case $TERM in
        xterm*)
            PS1="\[\033]0;\u@\h: \w\007\]bash\\$ "
            ;;
        *)
            PS1="bash\\$ "
            ;;
    esac

For zsh

    case $TERM in
        xterm*)
            precmd () {print -Pn "\e]0;%n@%m: %~\a"}
            ;;
    esac