diff --git a/Documentation/diff-format.txt b/Documentation/diff-format.txt
index 400cbb3b1c120b93278472678ee7bdb87a74f95b..aafd3a394126e4718b593eb5727412e16d2334e4 100644
--- a/Documentation/diff-format.txt
+++ b/Documentation/diff-format.txt
@@ -46,6 +46,22 @@ That is, from the left to the right:
 . path for "dst"; only exists for C or R.
 . an LF or a NUL when '-z' option is used, to terminate the record.
 
+Possible status letters are:
+
+- A: addition of a file
+- C: copy of a file into a new one
+- D: deletion of a file
+- M: modification of the contents or mode of a file
+- R: renaming of a file
+- T: change in the type of the file
+- U: file is unmerged (you must complete the merge before it can
+be committed)
+- X: "unknown" change type (most probably a bug, please report it)
+
+Status letters C and M are always followed by a score (denoting the
+percentage of similarity between the source and target of the move or
+copy), and are the only ones to be so.
+
 <sha1> is shown as all 0's if a file is new on the filesystem
 and it is out of sync with the index.
 
diff --git a/diffcore.h b/diffcore.h
index 8ae35785fd4439f466620ab9186838e7cb20fa36..1ebfdae8b8ba1ede00cddd17bfd0fb5610866d03 100644
--- a/diffcore.h
+++ b/diffcore.h
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ struct diff_filepair {
 	struct diff_filespec *one;
 	struct diff_filespec *two;
 	unsigned short int score;
-	char status; /* M C R N D U (see Documentation/diff-format.txt) */
+	char status; /* M C R A D U etc. (see Documentation/diff-format.txt or DIFF_STATUS_* in diff.h) */
 	unsigned broken_pair : 1;
 	unsigned renamed_pair : 1;
 	unsigned is_unmerged : 1;