The ibdata1 file grows too large with innodb_file_per_table (1 reply)

Hi

I am using 5.5.25a-log MySQL Community Server for Solaris 10 X86 64bit.
I configured innodb engine with innodb_file_per_table , but after running months , the ibdata1 file now is 17GB ,

how can shrink the file ?
and Why this file grows so large with innodb_file_per_table configuration ?

mysql> show variables like 'innodb_data%';
+-----------------------+------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+-----------------------+------------------------+
| innodb_data_file_path | ibdata1:30M:autoextend |
| innodb_data_home_dir | /usr/local/mysql/data/ |


Thanks

Justin