diff --git a/test/sharness/t0090-get.sh b/test/sharness/t0090-get.sh
index f00bf7e89..57fe304f9 100755
--- a/test/sharness/t0090-get.sh
+++ b/test/sharness/t0090-get.sh
@@ -51,8 +51,7 @@ test_get_cmd() {
 		test_cmp expected actual
 	'
 
-	# TODO: determine why this fails
-	test_expect_failure "ipfs get -a archive output is valid" '
+	test_expect_success "ipfs get -a archive output is valid" '
 		tar -xf "$HASH".tar &&
 		test_cmp "$HASH" data &&
 		rm "$HASH".tar &&
@@ -68,8 +67,7 @@ test_get_cmd() {
 		test_cmp expected actual
 	'
 
-	# TODO(mappum)
-	test_expect_failure "gzipped tar archive output is valid" '
+	test_expect_success "gzipped tar archive output is valid" '
 		tar -zxf "$HASH".tar.gz &&
 		test_cmp "$HASH" data &&
 		rm "$HASH".tar.gz &&
@@ -105,8 +103,7 @@ test_get_cmd() {
 		test_cmp expected actual
 	'
 
-	# TODO(mappum)
-	test_expect_failure "gzipped tar archive output is valid (directory)" '
+	test_expect_success "gzipped tar archive output is valid (directory)" '
 		tar -zxf "$HASH2".tar.gz &&
 		test_cmp dir/a "$HASH2"/a &&
 		test_cmp dir/b/c "$HASH2"/b/c &&
diff --git a/unixfs/archive/archive.go b/unixfs/archive/archive.go
index d530461e7..e1faf5a33 100644
--- a/unixfs/archive/archive.go
+++ b/unixfs/archive/archive.go
@@ -17,6 +17,18 @@ import (
 // TODO: does this need to be configurable?
 var DefaultBufSize = 1048576
 
+type identityWriteCloser struct {
+	w io.Writer
+}
+
+func (i *identityWriteCloser) Write(p []byte) (int, error) {
+	return i.w.Write(p)
+}
+
+func (i *identityWriteCloser) Close() error {
+	return nil
+}
+
 // DagArchive is equivalent to `ipfs getdag $hash | maybe_tar | maybe_gzip`
 func DagArchive(ctx cxt.Context, nd *mdag.Node, name string, dag mdag.DAGService, archive bool, compression int) (io.Reader, error) {
 
@@ -29,15 +41,16 @@ func DagArchive(ctx cxt.Context, nd *mdag.Node, name string, dag mdag.DAGService
 	bufw := bufio.NewWriterSize(pipew, DefaultBufSize)
 
 	// compression determines whether to use gzip compression.
-	var maybeGzw io.Writer
+	var maybeGzw io.WriteCloser
+	var err error
 	if compression != gzip.NoCompression {
-		var err error
 		maybeGzw, err = gzip.NewWriterLevel(bufw, compression)
 		if err != nil {
+			pipew.CloseWithError(err)
 			return nil, err
 		}
 	} else {
-		maybeGzw = bufw
+		maybeGzw = &identityWriteCloser{bufw}
 	}
 
 	if !archive && compression != gzip.NoCompression {
@@ -53,6 +66,11 @@ func DagArchive(ctx cxt.Context, nd *mdag.Node, name string, dag mdag.DAGService
 				pipew.CloseWithError(err)
 				return
 			}
+			maybeGzw.Close()
+			if err := bufw.Flush(); err != nil {
+				pipew.CloseWithError(err)
+				return
+			}
 			pipew.Close() // everything seems to be ok.
 		}()
 	} else {
@@ -70,11 +88,12 @@ func DagArchive(ctx cxt.Context, nd *mdag.Node, name string, dag mdag.DAGService
 				pipew.CloseWithError(err)
 				return
 			}
+			w.Close()
+			maybeGzw.Close()
 			if err := bufw.Flush(); err != nil {
 				pipew.CloseWithError(err)
 				return
 			}
-			w.Close()
 			pipew.Close() // everything seems to be ok.
 		}()
 	}
diff --git a/unixfs/archive/tar/writer.go b/unixfs/archive/tar/writer.go
index 4953be90e..6536e443e 100644
--- a/unixfs/archive/tar/writer.go
+++ b/unixfs/archive/tar/writer.go
@@ -60,8 +60,11 @@ func (w *Writer) writeFile(nd *mdag.Node, pb *upb.Data, fpath string) error {
 	}
 
 	dagr := uio.NewDataFileReader(w.ctx, nd, pb, w.Dag)
-	_, err := dagr.WriteTo(w.TarW)
-	return err
+	if _, err := dagr.WriteTo(w.TarW); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	w.TarW.Flush()
+	return nil
 }
 
 func (w *Writer) WriteNode(nd *mdag.Node, fpath string) error {