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 2025-04-09 UTC."],[[["This document provides guidance on overriding default authentication credentials in Google Cloud client libraries for C++."],["The client libraries typically use Application Default Credentials, but you can override this with `UnifiedCredentialsOption`."],["You can override the default by explicitly loading a service account key file, as demonstrated in the provided code example."],["The document includes links to examples for `iam_admin_v1::IAMClient`, `iam_credentials_v1::IAMCredentialsClient`, `iam_v1::IAMPolicyClient`, and `iam_v2::PoliciesClient`."],["The document refers to the best practices guide for service account keys and the Authentication Components page for additional information."]]],[]]
