Linux - Cal command

This command displays a calendar. 

Syntax:

Cal [option] [[[day] Month] Year]

The following are some options generally user with cal command.

-1   This will display the current month output or given month output

-3   This option is used to display the current month as well as previous and next months output.

-s   This option will display Sunday as starting day of the week.

-m  This option will display Monday as starting day of the week.

-j    By using this option we will display Julian dates instead of regular dates. The first Julian date starts from January 1st.

-y  This option will display the calendar of the entire year.

Practical Usage:

⇒ This will be more helpful when we are scheduling a job or command execution on the Operating System.

Example-1:

Display current date:

Simply use cal command to display the current month.

[steve@sys2 ~]$ cal      
August 2016
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

In the above output we get the current day month and year.

Example-2:

Display particular date:

Now, I am going to display the date January 4th 2019 as follows

[steve@sys2 ~]$ cal  04 01 2019
    January 2019
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

Example-3:

Displaying Julian date of 5th July 1992:

To display Julian dates we use –j option with cal command as follows.

[steve@sys2 ~]$ cal -j 05 07 1992
         July 1992
Sun   Mon   Tue  Wed   Thu  Fri  Sat
                 183   184  185  186
187    188  189  190   191  192  193
194    195  196  197   198  199  200
201    202  203  204   205  206  207
208    209  210  211   212  213

The above-highlighted number is the Julian date of 5th July 1992.

Example-4:

Display the calendar of the year 1991:

We use ‘-y’ option with cal command to display the entire year calendar.

[steve@sys2 ~]$ cal -y 1991
1991
 
        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  16 17 18 19 20 21 22
20 21  22 23 24 25 26  17 18 19 20 21 22 23  23 24 25 26 27 28 29
27 28  29 30 31        24 25 26 27 28 29 30  30 31     

Example-5:

Display current month calendar along with next and previous month:

By using ‘-3’ option with call command we can display current, previous and next month calendar sheets.

[steve@sys2 ~]$ cal -3
      July 2016             August 2016          September 2016
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
                1  2        1  2  3  4 5  6                1  2  3  
3  4  5  6 7  8  9      7  8  9 10 11 12 13    4  5  6  7  8  9 10  
10 11 12 13 14  15 16  14 15 16 17 18 19 20   11 12 13 14 15 16 17
17 18 19 20 21  22 23  21 22 23 24 25 26 27   18 19 20 21 22 23 24  
24 25 26 27 28  29 30  28 29 30 31            25 26 27 28 29 30   
31

Example-6:

Display calendar sheet of current month with Sunday as starting day of the week.

By using ‘-s’ option with cal command we can display the calendar sheet with Sunday as the starting day of the week.

[steve@sys2 ~]$ cal -s
     August 2016
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