Never used to. Databases really make a distinction between transactions and DML. A transaction has a begin (and hopefully, if coded correctly) an end. A transaction does work on the DATA in the database. So, the transaction log keeps track of these changes so you can recover all the work that has been done on the data (often by end users). On the other hand, there is no real need to track what the DBA did to the database structure. If the DBA screws up, its his/her problem to recover. That is why the manuals say to create backups of the database before and after you issue DML commands. The transaction log can not recover a whole table, just transactions against that table.