diff --git a/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh b/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh
index 6cbc12d9a7..7f6eb9f3db 100755
--- a/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh
+++ b/t/t5551-http-fetch-smart.sh
@@ -213,10 +213,10 @@ test_expect_success 'cookies stored in http.cookiefile when http.savecookies set
 	test_cmp expect_cookies.txt cookies_tail.txt
 '
 
-test_expect_success EXPENSIVE 'create 50,000 tags in the repo' '
+test_expect_success 'create 2,000 tags in the repo' '
 	(
 	cd "$HTTPD_DOCUMENT_ROOT_PATH/repo.git" &&
-	for i in `test_seq 50000`
+	for i in $(test_seq 2000)
 	do
 		echo "commit refs/heads/too-many-refs"
 		echo "mark :$i"
@@ -237,13 +237,22 @@ test_expect_success EXPENSIVE 'create 50,000 tags in the repo' '
 	)
 '
 
-test_expect_success EXPENSIVE 'clone the 50,000 tag repo to check OS command line overflow' '
-	git clone $HTTPD_URL/smart/repo.git too-many-refs &&
+test_expect_success CMDLINE_LIMIT \
+	'clone the 2,000 tag repo to check OS command line overflow' '
+	run_with_limited_cmdline git clone $HTTPD_URL/smart/repo.git too-many-refs &&
 	(
 		cd too-many-refs &&
-		test $(git for-each-ref refs/tags | wc -l) = 50000
+		git for-each-ref refs/tags >actual &&
+		test_line_count = 2000 actual
 	)
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'large fetch-pack requests can be split across POSTs' '
+	GIT_CURL_VERBOSE=1 git -c http.postbuffer=65536 \
+		clone --bare "$HTTPD_URL/smart/repo.git" split.git 2>err &&
+	grep "^> POST" err >posts &&
+	test_line_count = 2 posts
+'
+
 stop_httpd
 test_done