IDATE(1)

📦
version 1.1 · 2 versions
, in debian trixie, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 IDATE(1) — like, the manual page for ical 💖

okay bestie, pull up a chair, we're reading a manpage together and honestly? it's giving ✨celestial✨. This is IDATE(1) from the User Commands section, and the star of the show is a lil program called ical. Let's get into it 🦋

🌙 NAME 🌙

ical — A Hijri/Islamic calendar (and converter)

no cap, that's the whole vibe.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ical [--gregorian yyyymmdd] [--hijri yyyymmdd] [--umm_alqura]
[--fixed_view] [--dual] [--help]

look at her. iconic. all the brackets are optional, she's flexible like that 💅

🫶 DESCRIPTION 🫶

So ical is a Hijri/Islamic calendar displayer, periodt. It utilizes and includes a Gregorian → Hijri converter, and also Hijri → Gregorian, because she does both directions, she's versatile like that 😭✨

The app uses and offers multiple calculation methods, and not all of them agree with each other at all times. Not me defending the drama — the reason for this multiplicity is that there just isn't one agreed-upon method, so various entities develop and advocate their own calculations. It's giving "everyone has an opinion" energy fr fr.

ical is able to comprehend and calculate both pre-epoch / pre-Hijrah dates, denoted as "B.H", and post-epoch / post-Hijrah dates, denoted as "A.H". She also utilizes Gregorian's pre-epoch "B.C" and post-epoch "A.D" dates and notes them per her output. When you're entering pre-epoch years, negative numbers ought to be utilized — yes bestie, the minus sign, don't forget it 🙈

When ical is run without any command-line options, she uses the host machine's Gregorian date and converts it to Hijri to display that month's view. And here's the cute detail: entries enclosed by [] denote the exact day specified. little square brackets, big responsibility 🎀

💅 OPTIONS 💅

ical follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`-`). A summary of all options is noted below, and I'm listing every single one, because we don't skip here:

  • -h, --help — Show summary of options. the classic "help me bestie" move 🫶
  • -g, --gregorian yyyymmdd — Specify the Gregorian date to be converted, where 'y' stands for year, 'm' for month and 'd' for day. so like, 20250105 energy.
  • -hi, --hijri yyyymmdd — Specify the Hijri date to be converted, where 'y' stands for year, 'm' for month and 'd' for day. same format, different calendar, she contains multitudes ✨
  • -u, --umm_alqura — Specify to use the Umm Al-Qura calculation method (used mostly in Saudi Arabia). 🇸🇦
  • -f, --fixed_view — Show a fixed week view (ie. start on Sun and end on Sat), else default to showing the preferred week view of the resulting calendar (Gregorian starts on Sunday, Hijri starts on Saturday). so it's Sun→Sat locked in, or vibes-based per calendar. your call 💫
  • -d, --dual — Show both conversion from and to calendar months simultaneously. two calendars, one screen, main character energy 👑

🌈 BACKGROUND 🌈

okay this part is the lore and it EATS:

The Hijri calendar is used in most of the Arab world and is the symbolic calendar of the Islamic faithed worldwide. This calendar is known as the "Hijri" (based on the word "Hijrah" — denoting migration in Arabic) to signal Prophet Mohammed's (PBUH) migration from Makkah to Medinah on Thursday, July 15, 622 AD (Julian). history class but make it astronomical 🦋

The Islamic Hijri calendar is strictly lunar (ie. moon-based) with twelve lunar months which do not correspond or track their solar counterparts (the Gregorian calendar is a solar or sun-based calendar). Lunar years, and thus Hijri years, are on average about 354 days long, which results in a Hijri year being roughly about 11 days shorter than its Gregorian counterpart. eleven days!! just gone!! every year!! 💀

There is much discussion and confusion regarding how best to track the Hijri calendar. A great deal of that confusion is based on the fact that many relay on a human moon sighting to denote the start (or end) of a month (each month of the Hijri calendar starts when a new moon's crescent is observed or is made visible at sunset) as opposed to using an empirical mathematic certainty. The methods presented in this application and its underlying ITL library are strictly arithmetic in nature and do NOT take moon-phases into consideration (in short, observational approximation is not used). no eyeballs, only math, that's the rule 📐✨

😭 LIMITATIONS 😭

There is currently no Umm Al-Qura support.

yes, bestie, I know. -u, --umm_alqura is right there in the options. and the LIMITATIONS section says there's currently no Umm Al-Qura support. both are true, both are in the original, and I am simply the messenger 🫠💀

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

Found a bug? Report bugs on the web using http://bugs.arabeyes.org — go tell the devs, they wanna know fr fr 🫶

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by Nadim Shaikli as part of the Arabeyes.org project. king behavior, honestly 🎀

ical is subject to the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Copyright © 2005, Arabeyes, Nadim Shaikli.

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

The ITL (Islamic Tools Library). It is the underlying requirement for ical to function. The ITL library was created and is hosted at www.arabeyes.org.

okay that's the whole page bestie, you're officially certified in ical 🎓✨

and before I go — this lil masterpiece is ical, from January 05, 2005, and she lives in section IDATE(1). vintage queen, still slaying 💖🌙 periodt.

📦 where this page comes from