diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index d42888219..b37bf3506 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2001-11-02  Laszlo Peter  <laca@ireland.sun.com>
+
+	* src/window.c (update_sm_hints): protect meta_verbose from
+	a NULL pointer.
+
 2001-10-29  Havoc Pennington  <hp@pobox.com>
 
 	* configure.in: bump version
diff --git a/src/window.c b/src/window.c
index ec12ca2f7..c7a3b7e90 100644
--- a/src/window.c
+++ b/src/window.c
@@ -3575,7 +3575,8 @@ update_sm_hints (MetaWindow *window)
                         &window->sm_client_id);
 
       meta_verbose ("Window %s client leader: 0x%lx SM_CLIENT_ID: '%s'\n",
-                    window->desc, window->xclient_leader, window->sm_client_id);
+                    window->desc, window->xclient_leader,
+		    window->sm_client_id ? window->sm_client_id : "(null)");
     }
   else
     meta_verbose ("Didn't find a client leader for %s\n", window->desc);