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::secretmanager_v1::SecretManagerServiceClient(
google::cloud::secretmanager_v1::MakeSecretManagerServiceConnection(
options));
}
[[["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 2025-03-21 UTC."],[[["This document provides a reference for the Secret Manager service, detailing multiple versions from 2.10.1 up to the latest release candidate, 2.37.0-rc."],["The client libraries primarily use Application Default Credentials for authentication, but these defaults can be overridden as needed."],["Authentication override is possible by using the UnifiedCredentialsOption, allowing explicit loading of credentials such as a service account key file."],["The example shows how to load a service account key file using `google::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials` to create a `google::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption`."],["The document references the best practices for managing service account keys, and additional authentication components for more detailed credential object creation."]]],[]]
