I've done something like this on a production data base server before. Maybe not the same thing but I allocated a really big file because mysql would occasiona

I've done something like this on a production data base server before. Maybe not the same thing but I allocated a really big file because mysql would occasionally grow its ibdata file to full the disk before we could handle the alert. Deleting this file allowed room to maneuver after restarting the database and dealing with this run away journal file. The other similar urban legend is the enterprise teams which have for(int i=0;i<10000000;++i); loops in code which they can remove a zero when performance boost is needed and they can quickly provide a fix.