If you use the InnoDB storage engine for (some of) your MySQL tables, you’ve probably already came across a problem with its default configuration. As you may have noticed in your MySQL’s data directory (in Debian/Ubuntu – /var/lib/mysql) lies a file called ‘ibdata1′. It holds almost all the InnoDB data (it’s not a transaction log) of the MySQL instance and could get quite big. By default this file has a initial size of 10Mb and it automatically extends. Unfortunately, by design InnoDB data files cannot be shrinked. That’s why DELETEs, TRUNCATEs, DROPs, etc. will not reclaim the space used by the file.
I think you can find good explanation and solution there :