diff --git a/datalad_next/archive_operations/tarfile.py b/datalad_next/archive_operations/tarfile.py
index 67ef1ae3d..9587e4aa4 100644
--- a/datalad_next/archive_operations/tarfile.py
+++ b/datalad_next/archive_operations/tarfile.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
     IO,
 )
 
+from datalad_next.config import ConfigManager
 # TODO we might just want to do it in reverse:
 # move the code of `iter_tar` in here and have it call
 # `TarArchiveOperations(path).__iter__()` instead.
@@ -27,13 +28,12 @@
 )
 
 from . import ArchiveOperations
-from datalad_next.config import ConfigManager
 
 lgr = logging.getLogger('datalad.ext.next.archive_operations.tarfile')
 
 
 class TarArchiveOperations(ArchiveOperations):
-    """
+    """Handler for a TAR archive on a local file system
     """
     def __init__(self, location: Path, *, cfg: ConfigManager | None = None):
         """
@@ -66,9 +66,8 @@ def close(self) -> None:
 
     @contextmanager
     def open(self, item: Any) -> IO:
-        """
-        """
-        yield self.tarfile.extractfile(str(item))
+        with self.tarfile.extractfile(str(item)) as fp:
+            yield fp
 
     def __contains__(self, item: Any) -> bool:
         try:
diff --git a/datalad_next/archive_operations/tests/__init__.py b/datalad_next/archive_operations/tests/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e69de29bb
diff --git a/datalad_next/archive_operations/tests/test_tarfile.py b/datalad_next/archive_operations/tests/test_tarfile.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9eed8bc15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/datalad_next/archive_operations/tests/test_tarfile.py
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from dataclasses import dataclass
+from pathlib import (
+    Path,
+    PurePosixPath,
+)
+from typing import Generator
+
+import pytest
+
+from datalad_next.iter_collections.utils import FileSystemItemType
+
+from ..tarfile import TarArchiveOperations
+
+
+@dataclass
+class TestArchive:
+    path: Path
+    item_count: int
+    content: bytes
+    target_hash: dict[str, str]
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(scope='session')
+def structured_sample_tar_xz(
+    sample_tar_xz
+) -> Generator[TestArchive, None, None]:
+    yield TestArchive(
+        path=sample_tar_xz,
+        item_count=6,
+        content=b'123\n',
+        target_hash={
+            'SHA1': 'b5dfcec4d1b6166067226fae102f7fbcf6bd1bd4',
+            'md5': 'd700214df5487801e8ee23d31e60382a',
+        }
+    )
+
+
+def test_tararchive_basics(structured_sample_tar_xz: TestArchive):
+    tartest = structured_sample_tar_xz
+    # this is intentionally a hard-coded POSIX relpath
+    member_name = 'test-archive/onetwothree.txt'
+    with TarArchiveOperations(tartest.path) as archive_ops:
+        with archive_ops.open(member_name) as member:
+            assert member.read() == tartest.content
+
+
+def test_tararchive_contain(structured_sample_tar_xz: TestArchive):
+    # this is intentionally a hard-coded POSIX relpath
+    member_name = 'test-archive/onetwothree.txt'
+    archive_ops = TarArchiveOperations(structured_sample_tar_xz.path)
+    assert member_name in archive_ops
+    assert 'bogus' not in archive_ops
+
+
+def test_tararchive_iterator(structured_sample_tar_xz: TestArchive):
+    with TarArchiveOperations(structured_sample_tar_xz.path) as archive_ops:
+        items = list(archive_ops)
+        assert len(items) == structured_sample_tar_xz.item_count
+        for item in items:
+            item_name = (
+                # TODO should not require this conversion
+                str(PurePosixPath(item.name)) +
+                '/' if item.type == FileSystemItemType.directory
+                else str(PurePosixPath(item.name))
+            )
+            assert item_name in archive_ops
+
+
+def test_open(structured_sample_tar_xz: TestArchive):
+    archive_ops = TarArchiveOperations(structured_sample_tar_xz.path)
+    file_pointer = set()
+    for item in list(archive_ops):
+        if item.type == FileSystemItemType.file:
+            with archive_ops.open(str(PurePosixPath(item.name))) as fp:
+                file_pointer.add(fp)
+                assert fp.read(len(structured_sample_tar_xz.content)) == structured_sample_tar_xz.content
+    for fp in file_pointer:
+        assert fp.closed is True
+    archive_ops.close()