Fixing: cal: command not found

Summary

When using the cal command, you may encounter the following error message:

chris@019a6bbbacc4:~# cal
cal: command not found

This error indicates that the cal command is not recognized or installed on your system.

Reason

The reason you're seeing the "cal: command not found" error is that the cal command, which is used to display calendars, has not been installed on your system. The cal command is not installed by default on all systems, and you need to install it manually.

Solution

To resolve the "cal: command not found" error, you need to install the cal command on your system. The following steps will guide you through the installation process:

Open a Terminal

You'll need to open a terminal or command prompt on your system to execute the installation commands.

Update Your Package Manager (optional)

It's a good practice to update your system's package manager before installing any new software. Use the following command to update the package list:

sudo apt update

If you're using a different package manager like yum or dnf, use the respective update command for your system.

Install ncal Package

Instead of using the cal command, you can install an alternative command, ncal, which serves the same purpose and is often available in the package repositories of most Linux distributions. Use the following command to install ncal:

sudo apt install ncal

On systems that use yum, replace apt with yum in the commands above. For other package managers, refer to their respective commands.

Verify the Installation

After the installation is complete, you can verify that the cal command is now available by running:

chris@019a6bbbacc4:~# cal
    August 2023       
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       

Now that you've successfully installed the cal command or its alternative, you should be able to use it to display calendars and manage your time effectively on the command line.

Originally published at https://chrisshennan.com/blog/fixing-cal-command-not-found