What happens if we shrink log file in SQL Server?

Is it safe to shrink SQL log file?

It's safe, but do it at a quiet time when there's low transactional activity. It's recommended to shrink the log to its minimal size and then grow it to its normal size (this will ensure the correct number of VLFs (internal virtual log files) are created, which improves performance for logged commands).

What does shrinking a transaction log do?

Transaction Log Shrink When the database Transaction Log file is truncated, the truncated space will be freed up and become available for reuse. But the Transaction Log file size will not be decreased, as the truncated space will not be deallocated.

What happens when the log file reaches its size limit?

If your log file reaches its limit in size during a transaction and cannot autogrow then the transaction won't be able to commit and you will see errors in SQL. The log file needs to be sufficiently sized to handle the transactions in between CHECKPOINT operations.

Is it safe to shrink database files?

This is true that shrinking a database is not recommended. You can understand it like this when you shrink the database then it leads to increase in fragmentation now to reduce the fragmentation you try to rebuilt the index which will eventually lead to increase in your database size.