One feature that really excited me in the new MariaDB 11.4 LTS release is the shrinking of the system tablespace (ibdata1). I have been eagerly waiting for this feature since around 2006 and now it has finally arrived with MariaDB 11.4.
Actually, this feature has been available since MariaDB 11.2 IR (June 2023).
Unfortunately, the announcement of this feature came a little too short. In the MariaDB release notes it says succinctly:
The InnoDB system tablespace is now shrunk by reclaiming unused space at …
