Unless otherwise configured, the client libraries use Application Default Credentials to authenticate with Google Cloud Services. While this works for most applications, in some cases you may need to override this default. You can do so by providing the UnifiedCredentialsOption The following example shows how to explicitly load a service account key file:
[](std::string const& keyfile) {
auto is = std::ifstream(keyfile);
is.exceptions(std::ios::badbit); // Minimal error handling in examples
auto contents = std::string(std::istreambuf_iterator<char>(is.rdbuf()), {});
auto options =
google::cloud::Options{}.set<google::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption>(
google::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials(contents));
return google::cloud::iam_admin_v1::IAMClient(
google::cloud::iam_admin_v1::MakeIAMConnection(options));
}
Follow these links to find examples for other *Client classes:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-03-14 UTC."],[[["This document details how to override the default Application Default Credentials (ADC) used by Google Cloud client libraries for authentication."],["You can override the default authentication by providing the `UnifiedCredentialsOption`, as demonstrated using a service account key file example."],["The provided code snippet illustrates how to load a service account key file explicitly to authenticate, using a `std::ifstream` to load the contents of the file."],["Examples are provided for multiple client classes including `iam_admin_v1::IAMClient`, `iam_credentials_v1::IAMCredentialsClient`, `iam_v1::IAMPolicyClient`, and `iam_v2::PoliciesClient`."],["The document directs users to consult the \"Best practices for managing service account keys\" guide and the \"Authentication Components\" section for additional information and best practices."]]],[]]
