There is no way actually to optimize this table in most cases. This table is very often used for reading and writing, it is relatively small and almost always in a fragmented state. My plugin has thresholds to consider a table fragmented (size and degree of fragmentation), and it has 3 different methods for optimization (you can try each one by changing it in the plugin settings).
I have tested all plugins for optimization in the past few years, and all the plugins are using the same optimization method (there is no other way to do it, really), and they all have the same results.
When you run optimization, MySQL always reports that it is done. After that, it is often reporting incorrectly what has actually happened, because it uses an internal cache and it very rarely actually gets accurate statistics. My plugin does trigger statistics refresh after optimization to try and get accurate results.
Finally, there is no real need to always optimize every table; that is often a bad idea. Big fragmentation can slow down big tables; small tables are always fragmented because that is how MySQL works. MySQL works in size increments, so if your table is 2MB, MySQL still has to reserve at least 4MB, making the table fragmented by default.
I know for a fact that some plugins report the optimization for this table incorrectly on purpose, and I choose not to do that, and my plugin shows the statuses as they are, it is even trying to refresh statistics anytime it can to force MySQL to give better results.
Milan
