cal -m doesn't work anymore

[mrq1]

Binary package hint: bsdmainutils

output of karmic version:
~>>> /media/karmic/usr/bin/cal -m
     July 2010
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
          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

lucid version:
~>>> /usr/bin/cal -m
/usr/bin/cal: option requires an argument -- 'm'
usage: cal [-hjy] [[month] year]
       cal [-hj] [-m month] [year]
       ncal [-hJjpwy] [-s country_code] [[month] year]
       ncal [-hJeo] [year]

in the manpage is no option for getting the start of
week on monday anymore (like in karmic and before...)

[Michael Meskes (meskes)]

Not sure which version you are using but there is the new option '-M' doing what '-m' did before.

[mrq1 (kubuntu-bugreporter)]

does not work with maverick:

>>> unalias cal
>>> cal -M
usage: cal [-hjy] [[month] year]
       cal [-hj] [-m month] [year]
       ncal [-hJjpwy3MS] [-s country_code] [[month] year]
       ncal [-hJeo] [year]

seems to work only via "ncal"
>>> unalias ncal
>>> ncal -M
    December 2010
Mo 6 13 20 27
Tu 7 14 21 28
We 1 8 15 22 29
Th 2 9 16 23 30
Fr 3 10 17 24 31
Sa 4 11 18 25
Su 5 12 19 26

thats REALY strange:
>>> ncal -S
    December 2010
Su 6 13 20 27
Mo 7 14 21 28
Tu 1 8 15 22 29
We 2 9 16 23 30
Th 3 10 17 24 31
Fr 4 11 18 25
Sa 5 12 19 26

the layout (Su first) changes but the layout of the days does not chance
that CANT be correct!

[Ralph Corderoy (ralph-inputplus)]

I think the title of this bug is misleading. cal's -m option has become ncal's -M, that fine. But ncal's -S option compared to -M prints the dates in the same place but shifts the days of the week labels; as mrq1 wrote "that CANT be correct".

To show the problem, just do "ncal -M; ncal -S" and study the output. I suggest the title be changed to "ncal incorrect if asked for weeks starting Sunday with -S". And the priority should be higher than normal. I very nearly made a real muck-up here because I trusted ncal's output without a second thought.

The above is 10.10. I think it may have been fixed in 11.04; could someone test please. But given the potential impact of using a wrong calendar perhaps the fix needs back-porting?

[inye (j-contrerasferrada)]

I use ubuntu 11.04 but the bug still here. :(

[Michael Wayne Goodman (goodmami)]

According to the man page, "The cal utility displays a simple calendar in traditional format and ncal offers an alternative layout...", so the switched axes are not a problem with ncal. But I do observe the problem that the -M option does not cause the week to start with Monday with cal.

$ cal -M
Usage: cal [general options] [-hjy] [[month] year]
       cal [general options] [-hj] [-m month] [year]
       ncal [general options] [-bhJjpwySM] [-s country_code] [[month] year]
       ncal [general options] [-bhJeoSM] [year]
General options: [-NC3] [-A months] [-B months]
For debug the highlighting: [-H yyyy-mm-dd] [-d yyyy-mm]
$ ncal -M
    November 2011
Mo 7 14 21 28
Tu 1 8 15 22 29
We 2 9 16 23 30
Th 3 10 17 24
Fr 4 11 18 25
Sa 5 12 19 26
Su 6 13 20 27

I get similar results with -S (works for ncal, doesn't for cal).

I am running Ubuntu 11.10

[Michael Wayne Goodman (goodmami)]

The man page is shared for cal and ncal, and it says ncal has more options, so it may be the case that the -M option is only for ncal. Until this gets fixed, I came up with the following workaround:

$ ncal -M -C
   November 2011
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
    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

Using ncal, the -M option starts the week on Monday, and the -C option uses cal-style formatting.

[Ralph Corderoy (ralph-inputplus)]

Here's a trivial example of the bug.

    $ ncal -M
        January 2012
    Mo 2 9 16 23 30
    Tu 3 10 17 24 31
    We 4 11 18 25
    Th 5 12 19 26
    Fr 6 13 20 27
    Sa 7 14 21 28
    Su 1 8 15 22 29
    $ ncal -S
        January 2012
    Su 2 9 16 23 30
    Mo 3 10 17 24 31
    Tu 4 11 18 25
    We 5 12 19 26
    Th 6 13 20 27
    Fr 7 14 21 28
    Sa 1 8 15 22 29
    $

Was New Year's day this year a Sunday or a Saturday? The importance of
this bug *must* be high because people, including me, look at the output
of ncal to make real-life decisions and announcements affecting others.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

I will mark this ticket as a dupe to bug 908233.

ncal -S now works correctly in precise. If you want to argue for a backported fix to lucid, please open a new ticket. If you let me know about it, I can even mark it high prio.