diff --git a/remote-curl.c b/remote-curl.c
index 04a9d6277d..3ec474fc63 100644
--- a/remote-curl.c
+++ b/remote-curl.c
@@ -362,16 +362,17 @@ static size_t rpc_in(char *ptr, size_t eltsize,
 
 static int run_slot(struct active_request_slot *slot)
 {
-	int err = 0;
+	int err;
 	struct slot_results results;
 
 	slot->results = &results;
 	slot->curl_result = curl_easy_perform(slot->curl);
 	finish_active_slot(slot);
 
-	if (results.curl_result != CURLE_OK) {
-		err |= error("RPC failed; result=%d, HTTP code = %ld",
-			results.curl_result, results.http_code);
+	err = handle_curl_result(slot);
+	if (err != HTTP_OK && err != HTTP_REAUTH) {
+		error("RPC failed; result=%d, HTTP code = %ld",
+		      results.curl_result, results.http_code);
 	}
 
 	return err;
@@ -436,9 +437,11 @@ static int post_rpc(struct rpc_state *rpc)
 	}
 
 	if (large_request) {
-		err = probe_rpc(rpc);
-		if (err)
-			return err;
+		do {
+			err = probe_rpc(rpc);
+		} while (err == HTTP_REAUTH);
+		if (err != HTTP_OK)
+			return -1;
 	}
 
 	slot = get_active_slot();
@@ -525,7 +528,11 @@ static int post_rpc(struct rpc_state *rpc)
 	curl_easy_setopt(slot->curl, CURLOPT_WRITEFUNCTION, rpc_in);
 	curl_easy_setopt(slot->curl, CURLOPT_FILE, rpc);
 
-	err = run_slot(slot);
+	do {
+		err = run_slot(slot);
+	} while (err == HTTP_REAUTH && !large_request && !use_gzip);
+	if (err != HTTP_OK)
+		err = -1;
 
 	curl_slist_free_all(headers);
 	free(gzip_body);
diff --git a/t/t5541-http-push.sh b/t/t5541-http-push.sh
index 9b1cd603c6..ef6d6b6e4e 100755
--- a/t/t5541-http-push.sh
+++ b/t/t5541-http-push.sh
@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ test_expect_success 'push over smart http with auth' '
 	test_cmp expect actual
 '
 
-test_expect_failure 'push to auth-only-for-push repo' '
+test_expect_success 'push to auth-only-for-push repo' '
 	cd "$ROOT_PATH/test_repo_clone" &&
 	echo push-half-auth >expect &&
 	test_commit push-half-auth &&