[Windows/RFA/commit] Deprecate windows-specific dll-symbols command and aliases

[Joel Brobecker]

> > Thanks! I was planning on removing the command from gdb.texinfo
> > when it is actually deleted. But I can certainly do it now too!
> > If no one else comments on it, I'll go with your suggestion of
> > removing it now.
> 
> I think we shouldn't advertise deprecated features.

Sure.

Upon grep'ing the manual, I found the following paragraph which
promotes a rather peculiar use of the command:

| Note that before the debugged program has started execution, no DLLs
| will have been loaded.  The easiest way around this problem is simply to
| start the program --- either by setting a breakpoint or letting the
| program run once to completion.  It is also possible to force
| @value{GDBN} to load a particular DLL before starting the executable ---
| see the shared library information in @ref{Files}, or the
| @code{dll-symbols} command in @ref{Cygwin Native}.  Currently,
| explicitly loading symbols from a DLL with no debugging information will
| cause the symbol names to be duplicated in @value{GDBN}'s lookup table,
| which may adversely affect symbol lookup performance.

I think that suggesting the loading of the DLL before getting it
actually mapped is a little iffy and that it's much better, IMO,
to ask the user to just run the program the same way we do it
on all other platforms. You can emulate that behavior using
the "symbol-file" command, but I don't think this was the intention
of that command and that we should validate it here.

With that in mind, and since I was almost done with the change,
if finished it with the assumption that this was going to be
an acceptable loss of functionality, I still went ahead with
the doco update. If people feel that this is not acceptable, then
my patch should be dropped, and I think the documentation should
be clarified about the dll-symbols command intended usage and
limitations (whoever opposed the removal can do it!?! ;-)).

gdb/ChangeLog:

        * windows-nat.c (_initialize_windows_nat): Deprecate the
        "dll-symbols" command.  Turn the "add-shared-symbol-files"
        and "assf" aliases into commands, and deprecate them as well.
        * NEWS: Add entry explaining that "dll-symbols" and its two
        aliases are now deprecated.

gdb/doc/ChangeLog:

        * gdb.texinfo (Files): Remove documentation of commands
        "add-shared-symbol-files" and "assf".
        (Cygwin Native): Remove documentation of the "dll-symbols"
        command.
        (Non-debug DLL Symbols): Remove reference to "dll-symbols"
        as a way to force the loading of symbols from a DLL.

-- 
Joel
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