Lesson 69: cal Command
In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the cal command to display calendars in the terminal for the current month, any specific month, any year past or future, and in several display formats useful for scripting and date planning.
The cal command is part of the util-linux package and comes pre-installed on almost all Linux distributions.
It reads the system date from the kernel and renders formatted calendars directly in the terminal, no GUI, no browser, no internet connection required.
While it may seem simple at first glance, cal has several options that make it genuinely useful for sysadmins scheduling maintenance windows, developers checking date ranges, and anyone working heavily in the terminal who needs a quick calendar reference.
Installation
If cal is not available on your system, install it with:
sudo apt install ncal # Debian/Ubuntu
Or:
sudo dnf install util-linux # RHEL/CentOS/Fedora
Syntax
cal [OPTIONS] [[MONTH] YEAR]
cal [OPTIONS] [TIMESTAMP|MONTHNAME]
Options
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
-1 |
Show only the current month (default) |
-3 |
Show the previous, current, and next month |
-n <N> |
Show N months starting from the current month |
-S |
Display weeks starting from Sunday (default) |
-M |
Display weeks starting from Monday |
-m <month> |
Specify month by name or number |
-y |
Show the full calendar for the current year |
-Y |
Show the full calendar for the next year |
-j |
Show Julian day numbers (day of year, 1–366) |
-w |
Show week numbers |
-h |
Suppress highlighting of today's date |
-V |
Display version information and exit |
1. Display the Current Month Calendar
cal
January 2025
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
Running cal without any arguments displays the current month with today's date highlighted. The week starts on Sunday by default.
cal output into a script or log file, use the -h flag to suppress it otherwise the color escape sequences will appear as garbage characters in the output.2. Display a Specific Month and Year
cal 02 1835
February 1835
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
Pass the month number and year as arguments to display any calendar — past or future. The cal command handles the full Gregorian calendar range.
cal 07 2145
July 2145
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
Note: Always pass the month before the year — cal 02 2025 shows February 2025. Passing just a number like cal 2025 shows the entire year 2025, not January 2025.