What is FTS_BEING_DELETED.ibd

I currently have on a MySQL 5.6 database using innodb_file_per_table the following individual tablespace file.

schema/FTS_00000000000001bb_BEING_DELETED.ibd

The schema is all InnoDB tables, and there ARE NO Full Text Indexes. I cannot comment on if a developer has tried to create one previously.
I am none the wiser in explaining the ongoing use of these files, or if it can be/should be deleted.

On closer inspection there are infact a number of FTS files.

$ ls -al FTS*
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 98304 Jan 29 16:21 FTS_00000000000001bb_BEING_DELETED_CACHE.ibd
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 98304 Jan 29 16:20 FTS_00000000000001bb_BEING_DELETED.ibd
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 98304 Jan 29 16:26 FTS_00000000000001bb_CONFIG.ibd
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 98304 Jan 29 16:21 FTS_00000000000001bb_DELETED_CACHE.ibd
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 98304 Jan 29 16:00 FTS_00000000000001bb_DELETED.ibd
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 98304 Jan 29 16:20 FTS_00000000000001c7_BEING_DELETED_CACHE.ibd
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 98304 Jan 29 16:26 FTS_00000000000001c7_BEING_DELETED.ibd
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 98304 Jan 29 16:21 FTS_00000000000001c7_CONFIG.ibd
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 98304 Jan 29 16:20 FTS_00000000000001c7_DELETED_CACHE.ibd
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 98304 Jan 29 16:20 FTS_00000000000001c7_DELETED.ibd

Any MySQL gurus with knowledge to share, and for the benefit of others that Internet search at a later time.

Related articles included Overview and Getting Started with InnoDB FTS and Difference between InnoDB FTS and MyISAM FTS but do not mention file specifics.

The article InnoDB Full-text Search in MySQL 5.6 (part 1) provides more insight that these files remain even if a full text index was created and has since being removed. It is not clear from the filename which tables these files relate to.

Comments

  1. says

    Which release of 5.6 are you using? There was a bug in the earlier releases where the auxiliary tables were not being dropped. These auxiliary tables are only created if the user has created an FTS index or created one in the past. Later versions with the bug fix should not leave such orphaned tables. In fact on startup there should be a check that checks and deletes them.

    If you are using the latest and greatest then there is a possibility that the fix is not working 100% as planned.