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::storagecontrol_v2::StorageControlClient(
google::cloud::storagecontrol_v2::MakeStorageControlConnection(
options));
}
[[["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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 when using Google Cloud client libraries, with version 2.21.0 being the base version.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest release candidate (2.37.0-rc) and a list of previous versions, including stable releases from 2.36.0 down to 2.21.0, are documented for the \u003ccode\u003estoragecontrol-override-authentication\u003c/code\u003e documentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers can override default credentials by utilizing the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e, as demonstrated in the example code that shows how to explicitly load a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe page recommends consulting the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide for detailed information on handling service account keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAdditional information regarding the factory functions to create credentials objects is available in the "Authentication Components" section.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]