cal — Display a calendar

Linux / Basic Linux commands / cal.html

Prints a calendar for a month or a year in the terminal.

Basic Information

What is this command?

cal prints the current month. Pass a year or month and year to view that period, and -3 shows the previous, current and next month together.

Many distributions ship ncal too, enabling Monday-first layouts (-m) and a full-year view (-y). For date arithmetic in scripts, use date instead.

What problems does it solve?

• Checking dates and weekdays quickly in a terminal
• Viewing the layout of a specific month
• Scanning a full year calendar
• Confirming date formats while writing docs

Key features

Month view

With no arguments it shows the current month.

• When to use: Checking today's date and weekday
• What you get: The layout is visible at a glance.
• Limitations: Public holidays are not included.

Year view

-y or a year argument prints all twelve months.

• When to use: Planning across a year
• What you get: You can see the whole year.
• Limitations: Output is long and may need a pager.

Week start

-m starts weeks on Monday.

• When to use: When a Monday-first layout is expected
• What you get: It matches common document conventions.
• Limitations: Option support varies by implementation.

Installation and usage

Check whether it is installed

cal --version

sudo apt install util-linux # Debian/Ubuntu sudo dnf install util-linux # Fedora

Real-world examples

This month

Show the current month.

cal

Specific month

Show October 2026.

cal 10 2026

Full year

Print the whole year.

cal -y 2026 | head -n 20