"Staged" files are files that have been changed and will be tracked in the future. If you create a new file in a directory under version control, it will be "unstaged". If you `git add <file>' it will then be "staged". (i.e. added to the commit, and tracked by git). At this point your .gitignore is staged, and future changes will be tracked by git. So, `git reset <file>' should do the trick, but in any case `git rm --cached <file>', certainly will.
> git status returns the following obscure "information":
>
> On branch master
> Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
> Unmerged paths:
> (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
> (use "git add <file>..." to mark resolution)
>
> both modified: .gitignore
>
> . I don't think I want to "unstage" anything (whatever that might
> mean) - IIUC, the suggested recipe would discard all my changes. I think
> I might want to "mark resolution" (assuming this gobbledegook means
> "mark <file> as resolved"),Yes. Then you need to commit.
> but the suggested recipe, as far as I am
> aware, doesn't "mark resolution", instead it moves a file into a list of
> files to be committed in the (?near) future.That's the same thing. You git add all the conflict-solved files, and then commit to finish the merge. I may be missremembering things (been using Magit for so long I'm slowly forgetting the details), but I'm pretty sure that's it. :-)