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::logging_v2::ConfigServiceV2Client(
google::cloud::logging_v2::MakeConfigServiceV2Connection(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"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis page provides documentation for overriding default authentication credentials in Google Cloud C++ client libraries for logging services.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest release candidate is version 2.37.0-rc, and the page lists versions ranging from 2.37.0-rc down to 2.11.0, each linked to their respective documentation pages.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eClient libraries use Application Default Credentials by default, but users can override this with \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e by loading a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eExamples are provided for \u003ccode\u003eConfigServiceV2Client\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003eLoggingServiceV2Client\u003c/code\u003e, and \u003ccode\u003eMetricsServiceV2Client\u003c/code\u003e on how to use service account keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor best practices and more details on managing service account keys, users are encouraged to consult the provided link to the official Google Cloud documentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]