Reusing "ibdata1" space

[Kay [DAS] Rozeboom]

We are running MySQL 5.0.77, and using INNODB in production for the first time.  The
production database has a lot of inserts and deletes, and the shared "ibdata1" file is
continually growing.  I understand that to return the unused space to the operating
system, we must delete and recreate "ibdata1" and its associated ".frm" files.  I am
wondering if we could do the following instead:

1)      Let "ibdata1" grow for a while.
2)      Rebuild the tables periodically using this syntax:   ALTER TABLE t1 ENGINE =
InnoDB;

I realize that this would not return the unused space to the operating system.  But would
it return it to MySQL so that it could be re-used for subsequent inserts, instead of
extending "ibdata1" further?

Kay Rozeboom
Information Technology Enterprise
Iowa Department of Administrative Services
Telephone: [phone]   Fax: [phone]
Email:  Kay.Rozeboom@stripped