This command is useful for quickly identifying which files have been added, modified, or deleted by showing each filename with a status code.
The --name-status flag changes output to list each changed file prefixed by a single-letter code (A for added, M for modified, D for deleted) instead of showing full diffs, and by default it compares the working directory against the staging area; you can also specify revision ranges or use --cached (aka --staged) to compare the index to the last commit.
Variations and similar commands include git diff --name-only to list only filenames without status codes, git diff HEAD --name-status for staged changes versus the last commit, git status -s for a concise summary of all change states, and git log --name-status to view file change statuses across commit history.