gdb versus gcc libiberty

[Brian Cameron <Brian dot Cameron at ireland dot sun dot com>]

I have a gcc 2.95.2 binary installed on my machine.  I built gdb and
wish to install it on the same machine.   However, I notice that both
want to install the libiberty.a library in the <install_dir>/lib
directory.

I was reading the gcc mailing list looking for some help, but didn't
find anything that was too useful.  I did notice that there is some
discussion that the libiberty library should be separated out of gcc
and gdb and made a separate dependant. 

I do not think that it is worth installing gdb if there is a risk
of it messing up gcc and impacting the people here who depend upon
it.

So, I have the following questions:

1. Would it cause me any problems if I install gdb without with gdb
   version of libiberty.a, leaving the gcc version of the library
   around.
   
2. Would it be better to install the gcc and gdb in two different
   directories and let them each have their own version of libiberty?
   If I do this, do I have to manually set LD_LIBRARY_PATH differently
   when I am using gcc versus gdb?

3. In order to have both gcc and gdb work properly on a system is it
   absolutely necessary to compile them both from source?  If so, the
   gdb README isn't clear about how to build it without having the
   libiberty.a clash.  Where are the instructions?
   
Personally I do not care if I loose debug information for the libiberty.a
library, so that isn't an issue for me (if that matters).

Thanks much!

Brian