Linux Command Line Tutorial For Beginners 31 - cal command

CAL(1)                  BSD General Commands Manual                 CAL(1)

NAME
     cal, ncal — displays a calendar and the date of Easter

SYNOPSIS
     cal [-3hjy] [-A number] [-B number] [[month] year]
     cal [-3hj] [-A number] [-B number] -m month [year]
     ncal [-3bhjJpwySM] [-A number] [-B number] [-s country_code] [[month]
         year]
     ncal [-3bhJeoSM] [-A number] [-B number] [year]
     ncal [-CN] [-H yyyy-mm-dd] [-d yyyy-mm]

DESCRIPTION
     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.

     The options are as follows:

     -h      Turns off highlighting of today.

     -J      Display Julian Calendar, if combined with the -o option, dis‐
             play date of Orthodox Easter according to the Julian Calen‐
             dar.

     -e      Display date of Easter (for western churches).

     -j      Display Julian days (days one-based, numbered from January
             1).

     -m month
             Display the specified month.  If month is specified as a dec‐
             imal number, it may be followed by the letter ‘f’ or ‘p’ to
             indicate the following or preceding month of that number,
             respectively.

     -o      Display date of Orthodox Easter (Greek and Russian Orthodox
             Churches).

     -p      Print the country codes and switching days from Julian to
             Gregorian Calendar as they are assumed by ncal.  The country
             code as determined from the local environment is marked with
             an asterisk.

     -s country_code
             Assume the switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar at the
             date associated with the country_code.  If not specified,
             ncal tries to guess the switch date from the local environ‐
             ment or falls back to September 2, 1752.  This was when Great
             Britain and her colonies switched to the Gregorian Calendar.

     -w      Print the number of the week below each week column.

     -y      Display a calendar for the specified year. This option is
             implied when a year but no month are specified on the command
             line.

     -3      Display the previous, current and next month surrounding
             today.

     -1      Display only the current month. This is the default.

     -A number
             Months to add after. The specified number of months is added
             to the end of the display. This is in addition to any date
             range selected by the -y, -3, or -1 options. For example,
             “cal -y -B2 -A2” shows everything from November of the previ‐
             ous year to February of the following year. Negative numbers
             are allowed, in which case the specified number of months is
             subtracted. For example, “cal -y -B-6” shows July to Decem‐
             ber. And “cal -A11” simply shows the next 12 months.

     -B number
             Months to add before. The specified number of months is added
             to the beginning of the display. See -A for examples.

     -C      Switch to cal mode.

     -N      Switch to ncal mode.

     -d yyyy-mm
             Use yyyy-mm as the current date (for debugging of date selec‐
             tion).

     -H yyyy-mm-dd
             Use yyyy-mm-dd as the current date (for debugging of high‐
             lighting).

     -M      Weeks start on Monday.

     -S      Weeks start on Sunday.

     -b      Use oldstyle format for ncal output.

     A single parameter specifies the year (1–9999) to be displayed; note
     the year must be fully specified: “cal 89” will not display a calen‐
     dar for 1989.  Two parameters denote the month and year; the month is
     either a number between 1 and 12, or a full or abbreviated name as
     specified by the current locale.  Month and year default to those of
     the current system clock and time zone (so “cal -m 8” will display 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 are given,
     the later ones take precedence over the earlier ones.

     A year starts on January 1.

SEE ALSO
     calendar(3), strftime(3)

HISTORY
     A cal command appeared in Version 5 AT&T UNIX.  The ncal command
     appeared in FreeBSD 2.2.6.  The output of the cal command is supposed
     to be bit for bit compatible to the original Unix cal command,
     because its output is processed by other programs like CGI scripts,
     that should not be broken. Therefore it will always output 8 lines,
     even if only 7 contain data. This extra blank line also appears with
     the original cal command, at least on Solaris 8

AUTHORS
     The ncal command and manual were written by Wolfgang Helbig
     <helbig@FreeBSD.org>.

BUGS
     The assignment of Julian–Gregorian switching dates to country codes
     is historically naive for many countries.

     Not all options are compatible and using them in different orders
     will give varying results.

BSD                           March 14, 2009                           BSD