>

View a Calendar in the Terminal with cal

Print the current month or the whole year as a text calendar with macOS's built-in cal command.

macOStimeTerminalLow risk
Run cal to show the current month, or cal -y to display all twelve months of the current year.

01Command

Command
$ cal -y

02What it does

cal is a tiny built-in utility that prints an ASCII calendar: plain cal highlights today in the current month, cal 12 2026 shows December 2026, and cal -y prints the entire year for scanning deadlines. Add -m if you prefer weeks to start on Monday instead of Sunday. It needs no network, no app, and is ideal for quick date checks or including in scripts and dotfiles like a login greeting.

03Risk

RiskLow risk

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

  • CAL(1) - macOS manual page
    Apple (Xcode man pages mirror) · vendor-doc · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: The manual page describes cal as displaying a calendar, with -y for the current year and a month/year argument form.
  • cal - Display a calendar
    SS64 · technical · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Documents cal's options including -y to display a calendar for the current year and -m to start weeks on Monday.

Last verified: 2026-09-19 · Category: System & Settings

06Related solutions

Change where screenshots are saved on Mac
macOSScreenshotTerminaldefaults

Point macOS screen captures at any folder you choose instead of the desktop.

Medium risk ✓ 2026-09-16
Download a file from a URL on Mac with curl
macOSTerminal

Grab any file from the web straight into the current folder — no browser needed.

Low risk ✓ 2026-09-16
Find files larger than 500 MB on Mac
macOSFilesTerminal

List the biggest files in your home folder that are eating disk space.

Low risk ✓ 2026-09-16