docs: Trace events must not expect pointer dereferencing

Signed-off-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@linux.vnet.ibm.com>

1 files changed, 5 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/docs/tracing.txt b/docs/tracing.txt
index f15069c96b..905a0837db 100644
--- a/docs/tracing.txt
+++ b/docs/tracing.txt
@@ -69,6 +69,11 @@ Trace events should use types as follows:
    cannot include all user-defined struct declarations and it is therefore
    necessary to use void * for pointers to structs.
 
+   Pointers (including char *) cannot be dereferenced easily (or at all) in
+   some trace backends.  If pointers are used, ensure they are meaningful by
+   themselves and do not assume the data they point to will be traced.  Do
+   not pass in string arguments.
+
  * For everything else, use primitive scalar types (char, int, long) with the
    appropriate signedness.