Cal (command)

cal

The cal command as shown in a Linux Bash session in Windows 10
Developer(s)	Charles Dye
Initial release	November 3, 1971 (1971-11-03)
Operating system	Unix, Unix-like operating systems, FreeDOS
Type	Command

cal is a standard program on Unix and Unix-like operating systems that prints an ASCII calendar of the given month or year. If the user does not specify any command-line options, cal will print a calendar of the current month.

Examples

$ cal
      March 2012                     
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
             1  2  3
 4  5  6  7  8  9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31

$ cal 2019
                              2019

       January               February                 March
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
       1  2  3  4  5                   1  2                   1  2
 6  7  8  9 10 11 12    3  4  5  6  7  8  9    3  4  5  6  7  8  9
13 14 15 16 17 18 19   10 11 12 13 14 15 16   10 11 12 13 14 15 16
20 21 22 23 24 25 26   17 18 19 20 21 22 23   17 18 19 20 21 22 23
27 28 29 30 31         24 25 26 27 28         24 25 26 27 28 29 30
                                              31
        April                   May                   June
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
    1  2  3  4  5  6             1  2  3  4                      1
 7  8  9 10 11 12 13    5  6  7  8  9 10 11    2  3  4  5  6  7  8
14 15 16 17 18 19 20   12 13 14 15 16 17 18    9 10 11 12 13 14 15
21 22 23 24 25 26 27   19 20 21 22 23 24 25   16 17 18 19 20 21 22
28 29 30               26 27 28 29 30 31      23 24 25 26 27 28 29
                                              30
        July                  August                September
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
    1  2  3  4  5  6                1  2  3    1  2  3  4  5  6  7
 7  8  9 10 11 12 13    4  5  6  7  8  9 10    8  9 10 11 12 13 14
14 15 16 17 18 19 20   11 12 13 14 15 16 17   15 16 17 18 19 20 21
21 22 23 24 25 26 27   18 19 20 21 22 23 24   22 23 24 25 26 27 28
28 29 30 31            25 26 27 28 29 30 31   29 30
 
       October               November               December
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
       1  2  3  4  5                   1  2    1  2  3  4  5  6  7
 6  7  8  9 10 11 12    3  4  5  6  7  8  9    8  9 10 11 12 13 14
13 14 15 16 17 18 19   10 11 12 13 14 15 16   15 16 17 18 19 20 21
20 21 22 23 24 25 26   17 18 19 20 21 22 23   22 23 24 25 26 27 28
27 28 29 30 31         24 25 26 27 28 29 30   29 30 31

$ cal 5 2009
      May 2009        
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa  
                1  2  
 3  4  5  6  7  8  9  
10 11 12 13 14 15 16  
17 18 19 20 21 22 23  
24 25 26 27 28 29 30   
31

Features

$ cal 9 1752
  September 1752
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
       1  2 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

The Gregorian reformation was adopted by the Kingdom of Great Britain, including its possessions in North America (later to become eastern USA), in September 1752. As a result, the September 1752 cal shows the adjusted days missing. This month was the official (British) adoption of the Gregorian calendar from the previously used Julian calendar. This has been documented in the man pages for Sun Solaris as follows. "An unusual calendar is printed for September 1752. That is the month when 11 days were skipped to make up for lack of leap year adjustments." The Plan 9 from Bell Labs manual states: "Try cal sep 1752."

The cal command was present in 1st Edition Unix.

See also

• Cron process for scheduling jobs to run on a particular date.
• List of Unix commands

References

• cal: print a calendar – Shell and Utilities Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 4 from The Open Group

External links

• cal(1) – Linux User Commands Manual
• cal(1) – FreeBSD General Commands Manual
• cal(1) – NetBSD General Commands Manual
• cal(1) – OpenBSD General Commands Manual
• Source of explanation of cal 9 1752 phenomena (humor)