NAME
cal – displays a calendar
SYNOPSIS
cal [-jmwy] [month] [year]
DESCRIPTION
cal displays a simple calendar. Calendars may be displayed by month or by year.
The options are as follows:
- -j
-
Display Julian dates (days one-based, numbered from January 1). The options -j and -w are mutually exclusive.
- -m
-
Display weeks starting on Monday instead of Sunday.
- -w
-
Display week numbers in the month display. If -m is specified, the ISO week format is assumed. The options -j and -w are mutually exclusive.
- -y
-
Display a calendar for the current year. This option is ignored if year is specified and conflicts with specifying a month.
A single numerical parameter specifies the year (1 - 9999) to be displayed. The year must be fully specified: “cal 89” will not display a calendar for 1989. Two parameters denote the month (1 - 12, or a month name or abbreviation thereof) and year. Alternatively, a single parameter may be given specifying the name or abbreviated name of a month: in that case a calendar is displayed for that month of the current year. If no parameters are specified, the current month's calendar is displayed.
A year starts on January 1st.
The Gregorian Reformation is assumed to have occurred in 1752 after the 2nd of September. By this time, most countries had recognized the Reformation (although a few did not recognize it until the early 1900s). Eleven days following that date were eliminated by the Reformation, so the calendar for that month is a bit unusual.
EXIT STATUS
The cal utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
The cal utility is compliant with the X/Open System Interfaces option of the IEEE Std 1003.1-2024 (“POSIX.1”) specification.
The flags [-jmwy], as well as the ability to specify a month name as a single argument, are extensions to that specification.
The week number computed by -mw is compliant with the ISO 8601 specification.
HISTORY
A cal command appeared in Version 1 AT&T UNIX.