iTerm 2 Tab Color Functions

Functions for setting the iTerm 2 tab/title bar color using their proprietary escape codes.

Note: iTerm2 title bar color changing doesn't work on High Sierra (source), but is available again in Mojave. Tab color changing should be available regardless of OS version.

Contents

• Setup
• Usage
  • Set Tab Color
  • Reset Tab Color
  • Base16 Shell Support
• Environment Variables
• Set Tab Color Automatically On Startup
• Create Aliases for Quick Color Switching

Setup

Source functions.sh in your .bashrc file.

e.g. if you clone this repo into ~/.iterm2-tab-color, add this line to your .bashrc:

. ~/.iterm2-tab-color/functions.sh

Usage

Set Tab Color

To set the tab color:

it2-tab-color <hex value>
it2-tab-color <R value> <G value> <B value>

• <hex value> 6 digit hex code for the color (optionally starting with '#')
  • Ex: it2-tab-color 1B2B34
• <R value> <G value> <B value> decimal values for RGB (0-255)
  • Ex: it2-tab-color 27 43 52

Reset Tab Color

To reset the tab color:

it2-tab-reset

Base16 Shell Support

If you're using base16-shell, you can use it2-b16-theme to set it to a color specified in ~/.base16_theme:

it2-b16-theme 
it2-b16-theme <color number>

• Providing no arguments sets it to color00 (the terminal background)
• <color number> is a 2 digit number corresponding to one of the color variables in ~/.base16_theme
  • Ex: it2-b16-theme 04

(Note: some colors may not work correctly if ~/.base16_theme assigns it to a local variable)

Environment Variables

When it2-tab-color or it2-b16-theme are called, they will set the environment variable IT2_SESSION_COLOR to the RGB values of the current tab color. functions.sh checks this variable at runtime and will restore the color if set. This allows the tab color to be maintained if exec bash is called, for example.

When it2-tab-reset is called, IT2_SESSION_COLOR will be unset.

Set Tab Color Automatically On Startup

To automatically set the tab color on startup, add something like the following to your .bashrc:

# Source iTerm2 tab color functions
. ~/.iterm2-tab-color/functions.sh

# Set the color on startup
it2-tab-color 1B2B34

Note that this will always set it to the same color, disregarding the value of the IT2_SESSION_COLOR variable. To set the color automatically at the start of a session and keep track of changes to the session color, add something like the following to your .bashrc:

# Source iTerm2 tab color functions
. ~/.iterm2-tab-color/functions.sh

# Set the color on startup
if [ -z "$IT2_SESSION_COLOR" ]; then
    it2-tab-color 1B2B34
fi

This will only set the tab color if IT2_SESSION_COLOR isn't set, allowing you to change the tab color and maintain the new color if exec bash is called.

Create Aliases for Quick Color Switching

If you have go-to tab colors, you may want to consider creating aliases for them in your .bashrc for quick color switching.

Example:

# Example palette: https://coolors.co/ff6d77-34d1bf-1f01b9-71a9f7-fcbf49
alias it2-coral='it2-tab-color FF6D77'
alias it2-turquoise='it2-tab-color 34D1BF'
alias it2-blue='it2-tab-color 1F01B9'
alias it2-yellow='it2-tab-color FCBF49'
alias it2-lavendar='it2-tab-color 71A9F7'