Custom frame title in Emacs

Question

I'm using Emacs and I find quite annoying the default frame (aka window) title that is user@host especially when I have several frames opened. Searching around I found that it's possible to change that by editing the variable frame-title-format; so I did it, I changed it to "%b" (for example) and that worked.

Now the issue: after exactly 30 seconds I minimized the frame the title switches back to user@host until I focus again on the frame.

I tried to write in my ~/.emacs:

(setq frame-title-format "%b")

and I even tried to customize it:

(custom-set-variables
 ; [...]
 '(frame-title-format "%b")
)

with no luck.

DETAILS:

• GNU Emacs 23.2.1

• Debian Squeeze

• Openbox

Am I missing something?

Answer 1

I have this in my .emacs:

(setq frame-title-format "%b")
(setq icon-title-format "%b")

And it works for me (GNU Emacs 23.1.1).

If it continues to not work for you, try running a plain-vanilla emacs session (emacs -q --no-site-init), then add the above two lines and then try it. If it works then something in your .emacs file (or the site-wide .emacs file) is in conflict.

Answer 2

(modify-frame-parameters (selected-frame) (list (cons 'name "The New Title")))

does the trick for me.