Sql server transaction log

[Oliver1]

Hi All,

I'm hoping someone can help correct the holes in my knowledge.
I always belived that running a backup of your database cleared the transaction log. The physical size of the transaction log remained the same, but the contents is removed.
I only ask as I set up a server about a month ago, set some sechduled jobs to backup the database everynight, rebuild the indexes, and run a few sql comands (nothing major though).
I then got dragged off for a month on another project so the server just sat there doing nothing, with nobody accessing it. When I came back to it the log file had grown from 500mb to 18gb. Now have checked and the database was backing up fine, so why would this have happened?

[Xilbus]

You need to shrink the log or setup a task to autoshrink it. Which version of sql are you using? 2005 tends to handle this a little better then 2000.

In either case, do the following:
Backup the transaction log.
Shrink the log.
Backup the transaction log.
Shrink the log.
Backup the transaction log.
Shrink the log.

No im not kidding, you really have to do it 3x before it will work.