>Can someone tell what the DCT file contains and why it perhaps growed on my test system from around 300K to 14MB?
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The .DCT is the memo field portion of the .DBC, and it experiences the same sort of bloat issues that .FPT files experience when frequent additions and modifications to the DBC are mad. If you're in the habit of generating ad-hoc views and deleting them or modifying views and stored procedures regularly, this behavior is not unusual. The solution is, to close the database, and after making a backup of the DBC/.DCT/.DCX (equivalent to .DBF/.FPT/.CDX), open the database exclusively as if it were a .DBF with the USE statement and issue a PACK - this will clean out the deleted segments of the .DCT file that are left sitting there; VFP does not re-use released blocks of a DCT any more than it re-uses blocks of an FPT.


At a minimum, I'd do this before shipping out the DBC and DCT for the app, since the development process probably churned out a hunk of freed DCT blocks that would've gone out unnecessarily when the system installed. If you're in the habit of generating temporary views on the fly and deleting them, consider using a second, temporary .DBC for generating your ad-hoc views, a new one getting generated each time the project is opened, and which you clean up during normal program shutdown.