Q:

Python: Unzipping and decompressing .Z files inside .zip

I am trying to unzip a Alpha.zip folder which contains a Beta directory which contains a Gamma Folder which contains a.Z, b.Z, c.Z, d.Z files. Using zip and 7-zip I was able to extract all a.D, b.D, c.D, d.D files stored within the .Z files. 
I tried this in python using Import gzip and Import zlib.
import sys
import os
import getopt
import gzip
f = open('a.d.Z','r')
file_content = f.read()
f.close()

I keep getting all sorts of errors including: this is not a zip file, return codecs.charmap_encode(input self.errors encoding_map) 0. Any suggestions as to how to code this?  

A:

You need to actually make use of a zip library of some kind. Right now you're importing gzip, but you're not doing anything with it. Try taking a look at the gzip documentation and opening the file using that library.
gzip_file = gzip.open('a.d.Z') # use gzip.open instead of builtin open function
file_content = gzip_file.read()

Edit based on your comment: you can't just open all kinds of compressed files with any compression library. Since you have a .Z file, it's likely that you want to use zlib rather than gzip, but since extensions are just conventions, only you know for sure what compression format your file is in. To use zlib, do something like this instead:
# Note: untested code ahead!
import zlib
with open('a.d.Z', 'rb') as f: # Notice that I open this in binary mode
    file_content = f.read() # Read the compressed binary data
    decompressed_content = zlib.decompress(file_content) # Decompress

