diff --git a/src/tracing.rs b/src/tracing.rs
index 5acae8a850..f06460d240 100644
--- a/src/tracing.rs
+++ b/src/tracing.rs
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
-use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicUsize, Ordering};
+use std::{
+    ffi::CStr,
+    sync::atomic::{AtomicPtr, Ordering},
+};
 
-use libc::c_char;
+use libc::{c_char, c_int};
 
-use crate::{panic, raw, util::Binding};
+use crate::{panic, raw, util::Binding, Error};
 
 /// Available tracing levels.  When tracing is set to a particular level,
 /// callers will be provided tracing at the given level and all lower levels.
@@ -57,29 +60,82 @@ impl Binding for TraceLevel {
     }
 }
 
-//TODO: pass raw &[u8] and leave conversion to consumer (breaking API)
 /// Callback type used to pass tracing events to the subscriber.
 /// see `trace_set` to register a subscriber.
-pub type TracingCb = fn(TraceLevel, &str);
+pub type TracingCb = fn(TraceLevel, &[u8]);
 
-static CALLBACK: AtomicUsize = AtomicUsize::new(0);
+/// Use an atomic pointer to store the global tracing subscriber function.
+static CALLBACK: AtomicPtr<()> = AtomicPtr::new(std::ptr::null_mut());
 
-///
-pub fn trace_set(level: TraceLevel, cb: TracingCb) -> bool {
-    CALLBACK.store(cb as usize, Ordering::SeqCst);
+/// Set the global subscriber called when libgit2 produces a tracing message.
+pub fn trace_set(level: TraceLevel, cb: TracingCb) -> Result<(), Error> {
+    // Store the callback in the global atomic.
+    CALLBACK.store(cb as *mut (), Ordering::SeqCst);
 
-    unsafe {
-        raw::git_trace_set(level.raw(), Some(tracing_cb_c));
-    }
+    // git_trace_set returns 0 if there was no error.
+    let return_code: c_int = unsafe { raw::git_trace_set(level.raw(), Some(tracing_cb_c)) };
 
-    return true;
+    if return_code != 0 {
+        // Unwrap here is fine since `Error::last_error` always returns `Some`.
+        Err(Error::last_error(return_code).unwrap())
+    } else {
+        Ok(())
+    }
 }
 
+/// The tracing callback we pass to libgit2 (C ABI compatible).
 extern "C" fn tracing_cb_c(level: raw::git_trace_level_t, msg: *const c_char) {
-    let cb = CALLBACK.load(Ordering::SeqCst);
-    panic::wrap(|| unsafe {
-        let cb: TracingCb = std::mem::transmute(cb);
-        let msg = std::ffi::CStr::from_ptr(msg).to_string_lossy();
-        cb(Binding::from_raw(level), msg.as_ref());
+    // Load the callback function pointer from the global atomic.
+    let cb: *mut () = CALLBACK.load(Ordering::SeqCst);
+
+    // Transmute the callback pointer into the function pointer we know it to be.
+    //
+    // SAFETY: We only ever set the callback pointer with something cast from a TracingCb
+    // so transmuting back to a TracingCb is safe. This is notably not an integer-to-pointer
+    // transmute as described in the mem::transmute documentation and is in-line with the
+    // example in that documentation for casing between *const () to fn pointers.
+    let cb: TracingCb = unsafe { std::mem::transmute(cb) };
+
+    // If libgit2 passes us a message that is null, drop it and do not pass it to the callback.
+    // This is to avoid ever exposing rust code to a null ref, which would be Undefined Behavior.
+    if msg.is_null() {
+        return;
+    }
+
+    // Convert the message from a *const c_char to a &[u8] and pass it to the callback.
+    //
+    // SAFETY: We've just checked that the pointer is not null. The other safety requirements are left to
+    // libgit2 to enforce -- namely that it gives us a valid, nul-terminated, C string, that that string exists
+    // entirely in one allocation, that the string will not be mutated once passed to us, and that the nul-terminator is
+    // within isize::MAX bytes from the given pointers data address.
+    let msg: &CStr = unsafe { CStr::from_ptr(msg) };
+
+    // Convert from a CStr to &[u8] to pass to the rust code callback.
+    let msg: &[u8] = CStr::to_bytes(msg);
+
+    // Do the remaining part of this function in a panic wrapper, to catch any panics it produces.
+    panic::wrap(|| {
+        // Convert the raw trace level into a type we can pass to the rust callback fn.
+        //
+        // SAFETY: Currently the implementation of this function (above) may panic, but is only marked as unsafe to match
+        // the trait definition, thus we can consider this call safe.
+        let level: TraceLevel = unsafe { Binding::from_raw(level) };
+
+        // Call the user-supplied callback (which may panic).
+        (cb)(level, msg);
     });
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::TraceLevel;
+
+    // Test that using the above function to set a tracing callback doesn't panic.
+    #[test]
+    fn smoke() {
+        super::trace_set(TraceLevel::Trace, |level, msg| {
+            dbg!(level, msg);
+        })
+        .expect("libgit2 can set global trace callback");
+    }
+}