How to Use cal Command in Linux: Syntax and Examples
The
cal command in Linux shows a calendar in the terminal. You can run cal alone to see the current month or add a year or month and year to see other calendars, like cal 2024 or cal 12 2024.Syntax
The basic syntax of the cal command is:
cal- shows the current month's calendar.cal [year]- shows the calendar for the entire year.cal [month] [year]- shows the calendar for a specific month and year.
Here, month is a number from 1 to 12, and year is a four-digit number like 2024.
bash
cal cal 2024 cal 12 2024
Example
This example shows how to display the calendar for December 2024 using cal. It prints the full month with days aligned under weekdays.
bash
cal 12 2024
Output
December 2024
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
Common Pitfalls
Common mistakes when using cal include:
- Entering the month and year in the wrong order (month must come before year).
- Using invalid month numbers (must be 1 to 12).
- Expecting
calto show events or holidays (it only shows dates).
For example, cal 2024 12 is wrong; the correct command is cal 12 2024.
bash
cal 2024 12 cal 13 2024
Output
cal: invalid month
cal: invalid month
Quick Reference
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| cal | Show current month's calendar |
| cal 2024 | Show calendar for the year 2024 |
| cal 12 2024 | Show calendar for December 2024 |
| cal -3 | Show calendar for 3 months before current month |
| cal -m 5 | Show calendar for May of current year |
Key Takeaways
Use
cal alone to see the current month's calendar quickly.Specify month and year as
cal [month] [year] to see any month.Always put the month number before the year number.
Month must be between 1 and 12; invalid inputs cause errors.
cal only shows dates, not events or holidays.