Here is a new set of patches for both binutils and GDB that introduce
--with-zlib/--without-lib, whose intent it allow someone to a user
the dependency on zlib.

There is no documentation for now, as I just want to make sure that
the option is accepted as is before writing it. Jan Kratochvil has
rewritten most of AM_ZLIB in the new config/zlib.m4 file, so I'll
make sure to put him on the blame list (aka ChangeLog).

Tom: I tried to think about how to integrate ourselves better with
GCC's configure option (--with-system-zlib), but I couldn't think
of anything nice.  I think GCC should have implemented optional
in-tree support the way you did for iconv. For now, I'm still proposing
--with-zlib unless someone offers a better suggestion, which I am
of course willing to implement.

Tested on x86_64-linux (--with-zlib, --without-zlib, default).

I'd like approval on the binutils side.  On the GDB side, I am planning
on checking everything in if there are no objections and the binutils
part is approved.

Thanks,
-- 
Joel