Programmatically set the color of a tab in iTerm2?

Question

My daily workflow includes me

1. Launching iTerm2
2. Creating 3 tabs
3. Setting one tab each to red, orange and yellow
4. Changing to a specific path in each tab

I would like to script this process; shell, applescript, etc. However, I cannot seem to find a hook that allows me to change the tab color. Is this possible? Here is a screen shot with an example of what I am trying to achieve.

Solution 1

That's possible and you should read iterm escape codes for details.

^[]6;1;bg;red;brightness;N^G

I tried to setup the color of the terminal when I do ssh (.ssh/config) and it worked but surprise, when I close the ssh session, it will not call the script again, in order to restore the title/color.

Added a feature request to auto-colored tabs - do not forget to star it, or add your comments (patches are also welcome!)

Solution 2

I added this function to my ~/.profile file:

function color {
    case $1 in
    green)
    echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;red;brightness;57\a"
    echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;green;brightness;197\a"
    echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;blue;brightness;77\a"
    ;;
    red)
    echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;red;brightness;270\a"
    echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;green;brightness;60\a"
    echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;blue;brightness;83\a"
    ;;
    orange)
    echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;red;brightness;227\a"
    echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;green;brightness;143\a"
    echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;blue;brightness;10\a"
    ;;
    esac
 }

After adding this function you have to open a new terminal session. Now you can enter:

$ color green

or

$ color orange

to change the Tab color.

I use Photoshop to compose colors:

This color picker values can be converted to the following commands (Just insert the R -> red, G -> green, B -> blue values into the right line after "brightness;" to get a different color):

echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;red;brightness;57\a"
echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;green;brightness;197\a"
echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;blue;brightness;77\a"

Solution 3

To reset the tab color after exiting the ssh session use:

function ssh {
  command ssh $@
  echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;red;brightness;176\a"
  echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;green;brightness;181\a"
  echo -e "\033]6;1;bg;blue;brightness;175\a"
}

Comments

[peth]

Doesn't Set window title and tab chrome background color help?

[Aaron]

I write an ssh wrapper script in my ~/bin which makes the tab color changes (and other things like custom background with server names) and uses an EXIT trap to change them back.

[lfender6445]

Aaron, would you mind sharing your script?

[davidhq]

You can also do that: function ssh { command ssh $@; # RESET BACK -> don't know how yet! help needed here }

[davidhq]

Somehow I found out... I pasted it as another answer

[alper]

What should we do to change active tab's color?

[Sridhar Sarnobat]

Wow this is useful (but not intuitive).