Is it possible to compress the file that is already compressed?
Example: Given a compressed file such as
file.zip, would it be possible to gzip it into another compressed file in UNIX like this:
Why should this not be possible?
Yes you can compress an already compressed file.
The result will vary depending on the source files and the compression algorithms used.
First off, yes, you can store one archive inside of another archive file. This is where a definitive "yes" to your question ends.
It could be possible to further compress the compressed data, but you can't do it with any of the common tools (ZIP, RAR, LHA, GZ, 7z, etc). Instead you would need a tool specifically designed to further compress your compressed data.
However, most people looking into file compression aren't looking at this specifically as they are looking into ways to make the general compression tools work better on different common file formats, so you are unlikely to find a practical tool to do this. Instead you should look at your compression tool's options and set it to use the maximum compression it supports instead to minimize the size of your data.
No, you can't.