diff --git a/Documentation/githooks.txt b/Documentation/githooks.txt
index ee9b92c90d..06e997131b 100644
--- a/Documentation/githooks.txt
+++ b/Documentation/githooks.txt
@@ -486,7 +486,7 @@ reference-transaction
 This hook is invoked by any Git command that performs reference
 updates. It executes whenever a reference transaction is prepared,
 committed or aborted and may thus get called multiple times. The hook
-does not cover symbolic references (but that may change in the future).
+also supports symbolic reference updates.
 
 The hook takes exactly one argument, which is the current state the
 given reference transaction is in:
@@ -503,16 +503,20 @@ given reference transaction is in:
 For each reference update that was added to the transaction, the hook
 receives on standard input a line of the format:
 
-  <old-oid> SP <new-oid> SP <ref-name> LF
+  <old-value> SP <new-value> SP <ref-name> LF
 
-where `<old-oid>` is the old object name passed into the reference
-transaction, `<new-oid>` is the new object name to be stored in the
+where `<old-value>` is the old object name passed into the reference
+transaction, `<new-value>` is the new object name to be stored in the
 ref and `<ref-name>` is the full name of the ref. When force updating
 the reference regardless of its current value or when the reference is
-to be created anew, `<old-oid>` is the all-zeroes object name. To
+to be created anew, `<old-value>` is the all-zeroes object name. To
 distinguish these cases, you can inspect the current value of
 `<ref-name>` via `git rev-parse`.
 
+For symbolic reference updates the `<old_value>` and `<new-value>`
+fields could denote references instead of objects. A reference will be
+denoted with a 'ref:' prefix, like `ref:<ref-target>`.
+
 The exit status of the hook is ignored for any state except for the
 "prepared" state. In the "prepared" state, a non-zero exit status will
 cause the transaction to be aborted. The hook will not be called with
diff --git a/refs.c b/refs.c
index e7b7c48d92..9d722d798a 100644
--- a/refs.c
+++ b/refs.c
@@ -2350,10 +2350,22 @@ static int run_transaction_hook(struct ref_transaction *transaction,
 		struct ref_update *update = transaction->updates[i];
 
 		strbuf_reset(&buf);
-		strbuf_addf(&buf, "%s %s %s\n",
-			    oid_to_hex(&update->old_oid),
-			    oid_to_hex(&update->new_oid),
-			    update->refname);
+
+		if (!(update->flags & REF_HAVE_OLD))
+			strbuf_addf(&buf, "%s ", oid_to_hex(null_oid()));
+		else if (update->old_target)
+			strbuf_addf(&buf, "ref:%s ", update->old_target);
+		else
+			strbuf_addf(&buf, "%s ", oid_to_hex(&update->old_oid));
+
+		if (!(update->flags & REF_HAVE_NEW))
+			strbuf_addf(&buf, "%s ", oid_to_hex(null_oid()));
+		else if (update->new_target)
+			strbuf_addf(&buf, "ref:%s ", update->new_target);
+		else
+			strbuf_addf(&buf, "%s ", oid_to_hex(&update->new_oid));
+
+		strbuf_addf(&buf, "%s\n", update->refname);
 
 		if (write_in_full(proc.in, buf.buf, buf.len) < 0) {
 			if (errno != EPIPE) {