diff --git a/rust/hg-core/src/repo.rs b/rust/hg-core/src/repo.rs
--- a/rust/hg-core/src/repo.rs
+++ b/rust/hg-core/src/repo.rs
@@ -212,10 +212,7 @@
     }
 
     /// For accessing the working copy
-
-    // The undescore prefix silences the "never used" warning. Remove before
-    // using.
-    pub fn _working_directory_vfs(&self) -> Vfs<'_> {
+    pub fn working_directory_vfs(&self) -> Vfs<'_> {
         Vfs {
             base: &self.working_directory,
         }
diff --git a/rust/rhg/src/commands/status.rs b/rust/rhg/src/commands/status.rs
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rust/rhg/src/commands/status.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,315 @@
+// status.rs
+//
+// Copyright 2020, Georges Racinet <georges.racinets@octobus.net>
+//
+// This software may be used and distributed according to the terms of the
+// GNU General Public License version 2 or any later version.
+
+use crate::error::CommandError;
+use crate::ui::Ui;
+use clap::{Arg, SubCommand};
+use hg;
+use hg::errors::IoResultExt;
+use hg::matchers::AlwaysMatcher;
+use hg::operations::cat;
+use hg::repo::Repo;
+use hg::revlog::node::Node;
+use hg::utils::hg_path::{hg_path_to_os_string, HgPath};
+use hg::{DirstateMap, StatusError};
+use hg::{HgPathCow, StatusOptions};
+use log::{info, warn};
+use std::convert::TryInto;
+use std::fs;
+use std::io::BufReader;
+use std::io::Read;
+
+pub const HELP_TEXT: &str = "
+Show changed files in the working directory
+
+This is a pure Rust version of `hg status`.
+
+Some options might be missing, check the list below.
+";
+
+pub fn args() -> clap::App<'static, 'static> {
+    SubCommand::with_name("status")
+        .alias("st")
+        .about(HELP_TEXT)
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("all")
+                .help("show status of all files")
+                .short("-A")
+                .long("--all"),
+        )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("modified")
+                .help("show only modified files")
+                .short("-m")
+                .long("--modified"),
+        )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("added")
+                .help("show only added files")
+                .short("-a")
+                .long("--added"),
+        )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("removed")
+                .help("show only removed files")
+                .short("-r")
+                .long("--removed"),
+        )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("clean")
+                .help("show only clean files")
+                .short("-c")
+                .long("--clean"),
+        )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("deleted")
+                .help("show only deleted files")
+                .short("-d")
+                .long("--deleted"),
+        )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("unknown")
+                .help("show only unknown (not tracked) files")
+                .short("-u")
+                .long("--unknown"),
+        )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("ignored")
+                .help("show only ignored files")
+                .short("-i")
+                .long("--ignored"),
+        )
+}
+
+/// Pure data type allowing the caller to specify file states to display
+#[derive(Copy, Clone, Debug)]
+pub struct DisplayStates {
+    pub modified: bool,
+    pub added: bool,
+    pub removed: bool,
+    pub clean: bool,
+    pub deleted: bool,
+    pub unknown: bool,
+    pub ignored: bool,
+}
+
+pub const DEFAULT_DISPLAY_STATES: DisplayStates = DisplayStates {
+    modified: true,
+    added: true,
+    removed: true,
+    clean: false,
+    deleted: true,
+    unknown: true,
+    ignored: false,
+};
+
+pub const ALL_DISPLAY_STATES: DisplayStates = DisplayStates {
+    modified: true,
+    added: true,
+    removed: true,
+    clean: true,
+    deleted: true,
+    unknown: true,
+    ignored: true,
+};
+
+impl DisplayStates {
+    pub fn is_empty(&self) -> bool {
+        !(self.modified
+            || self.added
+            || self.removed
+            || self.clean
+            || self.deleted
+            || self.unknown
+            || self.ignored)
+    }
+}
+
+pub fn run(invocation: &crate::CliInvocation) -> Result<(), CommandError> {
+    let status_enabled_default = false;
+    let status_enabled = invocation.config.get_option(b"rhg", b"status")?;
+    if !status_enabled.unwrap_or(status_enabled_default) {
+        return Err(CommandError::unsupported(
+            "status is experimental in rhg (enable it with 'rhg.status = true' \
+            or enable fallback with 'rhg.on-unsupported = fallback')"
+        ));
+    }
+
+    let ui = invocation.ui;
+    let args = invocation.subcommand_args;
+    let display_states = if args.is_present("all") {
+        // TODO when implementing `--quiet`: it excludes clean files
+        // from `--all`
+        ALL_DISPLAY_STATES
+    } else {
+        let requested = DisplayStates {
+            modified: args.is_present("modified"),
+            added: args.is_present("added"),
+            removed: args.is_present("removed"),
+            clean: args.is_present("clean"),
+            deleted: args.is_present("deleted"),
+            unknown: args.is_present("unknown"),
+            ignored: args.is_present("ignored"),
+        };
+        if requested.is_empty() {
+            DEFAULT_DISPLAY_STATES
+        } else {
+            requested
+        }
+    };
+
+    let repo = invocation.repo?;
+    let mut dmap = DirstateMap::new();
+    let dirstate_data = repo.hg_vfs().mmap_open("dirstate")?;
+    let parents = dmap.read(&dirstate_data)?;
+    let options = StatusOptions {
+        // TODO should be provided by the dirstate parsing and
+        // hence be stored on dmap. Using a value that assumes we aren't
+        // below the time resolution granularity of the FS and the
+        // dirstate.
+        last_normal_time: 0,
+        // we're currently supporting file systems with exec flags only
+        // anyway
+        check_exec: true,
+        list_clean: display_states.clean,
+        list_unknown: display_states.unknown,
+        list_ignored: display_states.ignored,
+        collect_traversed_dirs: false,
+    };
+    let ignore_file = repo.working_directory_vfs().join(".hgignore"); // TODO hardcoded
+    let ((lookup, ds_status), pattern_warnings) = hg::status(
+        &dmap,
+        &AlwaysMatcher,
+        repo.working_directory_path().to_owned(),
+        vec![ignore_file],
+        options,
+    )?;
+    if !pattern_warnings.is_empty() {
+        warn!("Pattern warnings: {:?}", &pattern_warnings);
+    }
+
+    if !ds_status.bad.is_empty() {
+        warn!("Bad matches {:?}", &(ds_status.bad))
+    }
+    if !lookup.is_empty() {
+        info!(
+            "Files to be rechecked by retrieval from filelog: {:?}",
+            &lookup
+        );
+    }
+    // TODO check ordering to match `hg status` output.
+    // (this is as in `hg help status`)
+    if display_states.modified {
+        display_status_paths(ui, &(ds_status.modified), b"M")?;
+    }
+    if !lookup.is_empty() {
+        let p1: Node = parents
+            .expect(
+                "Dirstate with no parents should not list any file to
+                 be rechecked for modifications",
+            )
+            .p1
+            .into();
+        let p1_hex = format!("{:x}", p1);
+        let mut rechecked_modified: Vec<HgPathCow> = Vec::new();
+        let mut rechecked_clean: Vec<HgPathCow> = Vec::new();
+        for to_check in lookup {
+            if cat_file_is_modified(repo, &to_check, &p1_hex)? {
+                rechecked_modified.push(to_check);
+            } else {
+                rechecked_clean.push(to_check);
+            }
+        }
+        if display_states.modified {
+            display_status_paths(ui, &rechecked_modified, b"M")?;
+        }
+        if display_states.clean {
+            display_status_paths(ui, &rechecked_clean, b"C")?;
+        }
+    }
+    if display_states.added {
+        display_status_paths(ui, &(ds_status.added), b"A")?;
+    }
+    if display_states.clean {
+        display_status_paths(ui, &(ds_status.clean), b"C")?;
+    }
+    if display_states.removed {
+        display_status_paths(ui, &(ds_status.removed), b"R")?;
+    }
+    if display_states.deleted {
+        display_status_paths(ui, &(ds_status.deleted), b"!")?;
+    }
+    if display_states.unknown {
+        display_status_paths(ui, &(ds_status.unknown), b"?")?;
+    }
+    if display_states.ignored {
+        display_status_paths(ui, &(ds_status.ignored), b"I")?;
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+// Probably more elegant to use a Deref or Borrow trait rather than
+// harcode HgPathBuf, but probably not really useful at this point
+fn display_status_paths(
+    ui: &Ui,
+    paths: &[HgPathCow],
+    status_prefix: &[u8],
+) -> Result<(), CommandError> {
+    for path in paths {
+        // Same TODO as in commands::root
+        let bytes: &[u8] = path.as_bytes();
+        // TODO optim, probably lots of unneeded copies here, especially
+        // if out stream is buffered
+        ui.write_stdout(&[status_prefix, b" ", bytes, b"\n"].concat())?;
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+/// Check if a file is modified by comparing actual repo store and file system.
+///
+/// This meant to be used for those that the dirstate cannot resolve, due
+/// to time resolution limits.
+///
+/// TODO: detect permission bits and similar metadata modifications
+fn cat_file_is_modified(
+    repo: &Repo,
+    hg_path: &HgPath,
+    rev: &str,
+) -> Result<bool, CommandError> {
+    // TODO CatRev expects &[HgPathBuf], something like
+    // &[impl Deref<HgPath>] would be nicer and should avoid the copy
+    let path_bufs = [hg_path.into()];
+    // TODO IIUC CatRev returns a simple Vec<u8> for all files
+    //      being able to tell them apart as (path, bytes) would be nicer
+    //      and OPTIM would allow manifest resolution just once.
+    let output = cat(repo, rev, &path_bufs).map_err(|e| (e, rev))?;
+
+    let fs_path = repo
+        .working_directory_vfs()
+        .join(hg_path_to_os_string(hg_path).expect("HgPath conversion"));
+    let hg_data_len: u64 = match output.concatenated.len().try_into() {
+        Ok(v) => v,
+        Err(_) => {
+            // conversion of data length to u64 failed,
+            // good luck for any file to have this content
+            return Ok(true);
+        }
+    };
+    let fobj = fs::File::open(&fs_path).when_reading_file(&fs_path)?;
+    if fobj.metadata().map_err(|e| StatusError::from(e))?.len() != hg_data_len
+    {
+        return Ok(true);
+    }
+    for (fs_byte, hg_byte) in
+        BufReader::new(fobj).bytes().zip(output.concatenated)
+    {
+        if fs_byte.map_err(|e| StatusError::from(e))? != hg_byte {
+            return Ok(true);
+        }
+    }
+    Ok(false)
+}
diff --git a/rust/rhg/src/main.rs b/rust/rhg/src/main.rs
--- a/rust/rhg/src/main.rs
+++ b/rust/rhg/src/main.rs
@@ -358,7 +358,9 @@
     files
     root
     config
+    status
 }
+
 pub struct CliInvocation<'a> {
     ui: &'a Ui,
     subcommand_args: &'a ArgMatches<'a>,