Linux "cal" Command Line Options and Examples
displays a calendar and the date of Easter
The cal utility displays a simple calendar in traditional format and ncal offers an alternative layout, more options and the date of Easter. The new format is a little cramped but it makes a year fit on a 25x80 terminal. If arguments are not specified, the current month is displayed.
Usage:
cal [-31jy] [-A number] [-B number] [-d yyyy-mm] [[month] year]
cal [-31j] [-A number] [-B number] [-d yyyy-mm] -m month [year]
ncal [-C] [-31jy] [-A number] [-B number] [-d yyyy-mm] [[month] year]
ncal [-C] [-31j] [-A number] [-B number] [-d yyyy-mm] -m month [year]
ncal [-31bhjJpwySM] [-A number] [-B number] [-H yyyy-mm-dd] [-d yyyy-mm] [-s country_code] [[month] year]
ncal [-31bhJeoSM] [-A number] [-B number] [-d yyyy-mm] [year]
Command Line Options:
-h
Turns off highlighting of today.
cal -h ...
-J
Display Julian Calendar, if combined with the -o option, display date of Orthodox Easter according to the Julian Calendar.
cal -J ...
-e
Display date of Easter (for western churches).
cal -e ...
-j
Display Julian days (days one-based, numbered from January 1).
cal -j ...
-m
Display the specified month. If month is specified as a decimal number, appending ‘f’ or ‘p’ displays the same month of thefollowing or previous year respectively.
cal -m ...
-o
Display date of Orthodox Easter (Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches).
cal -o ...
-s
Assume the switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar at the date associated with the country_code. If not specified, ncal triesto guess the switch date from the local environment or falls back to September 2, 1752. This was when Great Britain and hercolonies switched to the Gregorian Calendar.
cal -s ...
-w
Print the number of the week below each week column.
cal -w ...
-y
Display a calendar for the specified year. This option is implied when a year but no month are specified on the command line.
cal -y ...
-3
current and next month surrounding today.
cal -3 ...
-1
Display only the current month. This is the default.
cal -1 ...
-A
Months to add after. The specified number of months is added to the end of the display. This is in addition to any date rangeselected by the -y, -3, or -1 options. For example, “cal -y -B2 -A2” shows everything from November of the previous year toFebruary of the following year. Negative numbers are allowed, in which case the specified number of months is subtracted. Forexample, “cal -y -B-6” shows July to December. And “cal -A11” simply shows the next 12 months.
cal -A ...
-B
Months to add before. The specified number of months is added to the beginning of the display. See -A for examples.
cal -B ...
-C
Completely switch to cal mode. For cal like output only, use -b instead.
cal -C ...
-N
Switch to ncal mode.
cal -N ...
-d
Use yyyy-mm as the current date (for debugging of date selection).
cal -d ...
-H
Use yyyy-mm-dd as the current date (for debugging of highlighting).
cal -H ...
-M
Weeks start on Monday.
cal -M ...
-S
Weeks start on Sunday.
cal -S ...
-b
A single parameter specifies the year (1–9999) to be displayed; note the year must be fully specified: “cal 89” will not display a cal‐endar for 1989. Two parameters denote the month and year; the month is either a number between 1 and 12, or a full or abbreviated nameas specified by the current locale. Month and year default to those of the current system clock and time zone (so “cal -m 8” will dis‐play a calendar for the month of August in the current year).Not all options can be used together. For example, the options -y, -3, and -1 are mutually exclusive. If inconsistent options aregiven, the later ones take precedence over the earlier ones.A year starts on January 1.Highlighting of dates is disabled if stdout is not a tty.
cal -b ...