diff -r 657caf5d3eb1 Lib/test/test_tarfile.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py	Mon Dec 03 16:13:48 2012 +0200
+++ b/Lib/test/test_tarfile.py	Mon Dec 03 22:57:58 2012 +0000
@@ -1812,6 +1812,31 @@
     def test_partial_input_bz2(self):
         self._test_partial_input("r:bz2")
 
+class PartialIterTest(unittest.TestCase):
+    
+    specialFile = 'specialFile.txt'
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.files = ['file%d.txt' % a for a in range(5)]
+        self.files.insert(2, self.specialFile)
+        datapath = os.path.join(TEMPDIR, 'partialiter.dat')
+        with open(datapath, 'w') as f:
+            f.write('somedata')
+
+        self.tarpath = os.path.join(TEMPDIR, 'partialiter.tar')
+        with tarfile.open(self.tarpath, 'w') as tf:
+            for f in self.files:
+                tf.add(datapath, f)
+
+    def test_partial_iterate(self):
+
+        with tarfile.open(self.tarpath) as tf:
+            for member in tf:
+                if member.name == self.specialFile:
+                    break
+
+            self.assertEqual([member.name for member in tf], self.files)
+
 
 class LzmaMiscReadTest(MiscReadTest):
     tarname = xzname
@@ -1851,6 +1876,7 @@
         LimitsTest,
         MiscTest,
         ContextManagerTest,
+        PartialIterTest,
     ]
 
     if hasattr(os, "link"):