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Sometimes it feels that many of the excellent and convenient command-line tools is forgotten, when they are replaced by graphical tools. A good example is the cal program, which is a command-line calendar to Linux and UNIX. It displays a simple calendar in text format.

Cal usage

Displays current month calendar on console

cal

Output:


    October 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

Displays selected month and year calendar on console

cal 11 2012

Output:


    November 2012   
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

Displays selected day, month and year calendar on console, also highlight day

cal 21 11 2010

Output:


    November 2010   
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

cal with -m option display Monday as the first day of the week

cal -m 4 2011

Output:


     April 2011     
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
             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

cal with -j option display days numbered from January 1

cal -j 24 4 2011

Output:


         April 2011        
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
                     91  92
 93  94  95  96  97  98  99
100 101 102 103 104 105 106
107 108 109 110 111 112 113
114 115 116 117 118 119 120

cal with -3 option display prev/current/next month output

cal -3 -m 21 11 2009

Output:


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

cal with -j option display a calendar for the whole year

cal -y 2010

Output:


                               2010                               

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

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

And all of these options can be combined with the desired way, such as

cal -3 -m -j 24 12 2009

Output:


       November 2009                December 2009                 January 2010       
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun  Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun  Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
                        305      335 336 337 338 339 340                    1   2   3
306 307 308 309 310 311 312  341 342 343 344 345 346 347    4   5   6   7   8   9  10
313 314 315 316 317 318 319  348 349 350 351 352 353 354   11  12  13  14  15  16  17
320 321 322 323 324 325 326  355 356 357 358 359 360 361   18  19  20  21  22  23  24
327 328 329 330 331 332 333  362 363 364 365               25  26  27  28  29  30  31
334