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::shell_v1::CloudShellServiceClient(
google::cloud::shell_v1::MakeCloudShellServiceConnection(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 2025-03-14 UTC."],[[["This document lists various versions of the C++ client library, ranging from version 2.11.0 up to the latest release candidate 2.37.0-rc."],["The primary topic discussed is how to override the default authentication credentials used by the client libraries when interacting with Google Cloud Services."],["By default, the client libraries utilize Application Default Credentials (ADC) for authentication, but you can override this using the `UnifiedCredentialsOption`."],["The example provided demonstrates loading a service account key file to override the default credentials using the `MakeServiceAccountCredentials` function."],["For further details and best practices related to managing service account keys and authentication components, refer to the provided external links on service account key management and authentication components."]]],[]]
