On Wed, Nov 12, 2025 at 02:37:18PM -0800, Aaron Plattner wrote:

If a large request requires post_rpc() to call probe_rpc(), the latter
does not use the authorization credentials used for other requests. If
this fails with an HTTP 401 error and http_auth.multistage isn't set,
then the whole request just fails.

For example, using git-credential-msal [1], the following attempt to clone a
large repository fails partway through because the initial request to download
the commit history and promisor packs succeeds, but the
subsequent request to download the blobs needed to construct the working
tree fails with a 401 error and the checkout fails.

(lines removed for brevity)

 git clone --filter=blob:none https://secure-server.example/repo
 11:03:26.855369 git.c:502               trace: built-in: git clone --filter=blob:none https://secure-server.example/repo
 Cloning into 'sw'...
 warning: templates not found in /home/aaron/share/git-core/templates
 11:03:26.857169 run-command.c:673       trace: run_command: git remote-https origin https://secure-server.example/repo
 11:03:27.012104 http.c:849              => Send header: GET repo/info/refs?service=git-upload-pack HTTP/1.1
 11:03:27.049243 http.c:849              <= Recv header: HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
 11:03:27.049270 http.c:849              <= Recv header: WWW-Authenticate: Bearer error="invalid_request", error_description="No bearer token found in the request", msal-tenant-id="<tenant>", msal-client-id="<client>"
 11:03:27.053786 run-command.c:673       trace: run_command: 'git credential-msal get'
 11:03:27.952830 http.c:849              => Send header: GET repo/info/refs?service=git-upload-pack HTTP/1.1
 11:03:27.952849 http.c:849              => Send header: Authorization: Bearer <redacted>
 11:03:27.995419 http.c:849              <= Recv header: HTTP/1.1 200 OK
 11:03:28.230039 http.c:890              == Info: Reusing existing https: connection with host secure-server.example
 11:03:28.230208 http.c:849              => Send header: POST repo/git-upload-pack HTTP/1.1
 11:03:28.230216 http.c:849              => Send header: Content-Type: application/x-git-upload-pack-request
 11:03:28.230221 http.c:849              => Send header: Authorization: Bearer <redacted>
 11:03:28.269085 http.c:849              <= Recv header: HTTP/1.1 200 OK
 11:03:28.684163 http.c:890              == Info: Reusing existing https: connection with host secure-server.example
 11:03:28.684379 http.c:849              => Send header: POST repo/git-upload-pack HTTP/1.1
 11:03:28.684391 http.c:849              => Send header: Accept: application/x-git-upload-pack-result
 11:03:28.684393 http.c:849              => Send header: Authorization: Bearer <redacted>
 11:03:28.869546 run-command.c:673       trace: run_command: git index-pack --stdin --fix-thin '--keep=fetch-pack 43856 on dgx-spark' --promisor
 11:06:39.861237 run-command.c:673       trace: run_command: git -c fetch.negotiationAlgorithm=noop fetch origin --no-tags --no-write-fetch-head --recurse-submodules=no --filter=blob:none --stdin
 11:06:39.865981 run-command.c:673       trace: run_command: git remote-https origin https://secure-server.example/repo
 11:06:39.868039 run-command.c:673       trace: run_command: git-remote-https origin https://secure-server.example/repo
 11:07:30.412575 http.c:849              => Send header: GET repo/info/refs?service=git-upload-pack HTTP/1.1
 11:07:30.456285 http.c:849              <= Recv header: HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
 11:07:30.456318 http.c:849              <= Recv header: WWW-Authenticate: Bearer error="invalid_request", error_description="No bearer token found in the request", msal-tenant-id="<tenant>", msal-client-id="<client>"
 11:07:30.456439 run-command.c:673       trace: run_command: 'git credential-cache get'
 11:07:30.461266 http.c:849              => Send header: GET repo/info/refs?service=git-upload-pack HTTP/1.1
 11:07:30.461282 http.c:849              => Send header: Authorization: Bearer <redacted>
 11:07:30.501628 http.c:849              <= Recv header: HTTP/1.1 200 OK
 11:07:34.725262 http.c:849              => Send header: POST repo/git-upload-pack HTTP/1.1
 11:07:34.725279 http.c:849              => Send header: Content-Type: application/x-git-upload-pack-request
 11:07:34.761407 http.c:849              <= Recv header: HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
 11:07:34.761443 http.c:890              == Info: Bearer authentication problem, ignoring.
 11:07:34.761453 http.c:849              <= Recv header: WWW-Authenticate: Bearer error="invalid_request", error_description="No bearer token found in the request", msal-tenant-id="<tenant>", msal-client-id="<client>"
 11:07:34.761509 http.c:890              == Info: The requested URL returned error: 401
 11:07:34.761530 http.c:890              == Info: closing connection #0
 11:07:34.761913 run-command.c:673       trace: run_command: 'git credential-cache erase'
 11:07:34.761927 run-command.c:765       trace: start_command: /bin/sh -c 'git credential-cache erase' 'git credential-cache erase'
 11:07:34.768069 git.c:502               trace: built-in: git credential-cache erase
 11:07:34.768690 run-command.c:673       trace: run_command: 'git credential-msal erase'
 11:07:34.768713 run-command.c:765       trace: start_command: /bin/sh -c 'git credential-msal erase' 'git credential-msal erase'
 11:07:34.772742 git.c:808               trace: exec: git-credential-msal erase
 11:07:34.772783 run-command.c:673       trace: run_command: git-credential-msal erase
 11:07:34.772819 run-command.c:765       trace: start_command: /usr/bin/git-credential-msal erase
 error: RPC failed; HTTP 401 curl 22 The requested URL returned error: 401
 fatal: unable to write request to remote: Broken pipe
 fatal: could not fetch c4fff0229c9be06ecf576356a4d39a8a755b8d81 from promisor remote
 warning: Clone succeeded, but checkout failed.
 You can inspect what was checked out with 'git status'
 and retry with 'git restore --source=HEAD :/'

Fix the immediate problem by including the authorization headers in the
probe_rpc() request as well.

Signed-off-by: Aaron Plattner <redacted>

Tested-by: Lucas De Marchi <demarchi@kernel.org>

thanks,
Lucas De Marchi