DESCRIPTION
cal displays a simple calendar. If arguments are not specified, the current month is displayed. The options are as follows:
-
-3
-
Same as “-A 1 -B 1”.
-
-A after
-
Display after months after the specified month.
-
-B before
-
Display before months before the specified month.
-
-d day-of-week
-
Specifies the day of the week on which the calendar should start. Valid values are 0 through 6, presenting Sunday through Saturday, inclusively. The default output starts on Sundays.
-
-h
-
Highlight the current day, if present in the displayed calendar. If output is to a terminal, then the appropriate terminal sequences are used, otherwise overstriking is used. If more than one -h is used and output is to a terminal, the current date will be highlighted in inverse video instead of bold.
-
-j
-
Display Julian dates (days one-based, numbered from January 1).
-
-R reform-spec
-
Selects an alternate Gregorian reform point from the default of September 3rd, 1752. The reform-spec can be selected by one of the built-in names (see NOTES for a list) or by a date of the form YYYY/MM/DD. The date and month may be omitted, provided that what is specified uniquely selects a given built-in reform point. If an exact date is specified, then that date is taken to be the first missing date of the Gregorian Reform to be applied.
-
-r
-
Display the month in which the Gregorian Reform adjustment was applied, if no other month or year information is given. If used in conjunction with -y, then the entire year is displayed.
-
-y
-
Display a calendar for the current year.
If no parameters are specified, the current month's calendar is displayed. A single parameter specifies the year and optionally the month in ISO format: “cal 2007-12” Two parameters denote the month (1 - 12) and year. Note that the century must be included in the year.
A year starts on Jan 1.
NOTES
In the USA and Great Britain the Gregorian Reformation occurred in 1752. By this time, most countries had recognized the reformation (although a few did not recognize it until the 1900's.) Eleven days following September 2, 1752 were eliminated by the reformation, so the calendar for that month is a bit unusual.
In view of the chaotic way the Gregorian calendar was adopted throughout the world in the years between 1582 and 1928 make sure to take into account the date of the Gregorian Reformation in your region if you are checking a calendar for a very old date.
cal has a decent built-in list of Gregorian Reform dates and the names of the countries where the reform was adopted:
Italy Oct. 5, 1582 Denmark Feb. 19, 1700
Spain Oct. 5, 1582 Great Britain Sep. 3, 1752
Portugal Oct. 5, 1582 Sweden Feb. 18, 1753
Poland Oct. 5, 1582 Finland Feb. 18, 1753
France Dec. 12, 1582 Japan Dec. 20, 1872
Luxembourg Dec. 22, 1582 China Nov. 7, 1911
Netherlands Dec. 22, 1582 Bulgaria Apr. 1, 1916
Bavaria Oct. 6, 1583 U.S.S.R. Feb. 1, 1918
Austria Jan. 7, 1584 Serbia Jan. 19, 1919
Switzerland Jan. 12, 1584 Romania Jan. 19, 1919
Hungary Oct. 22, 1587 Greece Mar. 10, 1924
Germany Feb. 19, 1700 Turkey Dec. 19, 1925
Norway Feb. 19, 1700 Egypt Sep. 18, 1928
The country known as Great Britain can also be referred to as England since that has less letters and no spaces in it. This is meant only as a measure of expediency, not as a possible slight to anyone involved.