What is the command to truncate a SQL Server log file?

Question

I need to empty an LDF file before sending to a colleague. How do I force SQL Server to truncate the log?

Answer 1

For SQL 2008 you can backup log to nul device:

BACKUP LOG [databaseName]
TO DISK = 'nul:' WITH STATS = 10

And then use DBCC SHRINKFILE to truncate the log file.