You can never be too safe. Never have any combustible material closer than eighteen inches from the perimeter of the stove and twenty-four inches from the top. Use only a safe stove pipe jack. Never allow stove pipe to come in contact with your tent. Never leave the stove unattended with children, or the door open to the stove.
Hot stoves can cause burns.
Don mentioned two more important maintenance practices designed to add years of use to one's stove. First, do not store the stove with ashes in it. Ashes will attract moisture and combine to make lye, an acid. We do not want the fire falling through the stove bottom, starting a fire. Second, at the end of each season, wire brush any rust and paint the outside with high-heat barbecue paint.