A number of environment variables can be used to configure the behavior of the library. There are also functions to configure this behavior in code. The environment variables are convenient when troubleshooting problems.
Endpoint Overrides
GOOGLE_CLOUD_CPP_TRACE_SERVICE_ENDPOINT=... overrides the EndpointOption (which defaults to "cloudtrace.googleapis.com") used by MakeTraceServiceConnection().
GOOGLE_CLOUD_CPP_ENABLE_TRACING=rpc: turns on tracing for most gRPC calls. The library injects an additional Stub decorator that prints each gRPC request and response. Unless you have configured your own logging backend, you should also set GOOGLE_CLOUD_CPP_ENABLE_CLOG to produce any output on the program's console.
See Also
google::cloud::LoggingComponentsOptionGOOGLE_CLOUD_CPP_TRACING_OPTIONS=...: modifies the behavior of gRPC tracing, including whether messages will be output on multiple lines, or whether string/bytes fields will be truncated.
See Also
google::cloud::GrpcTracingOptionsOptionGOOGLE_CLOUD_CPP_ENABLE_CLOG=yes: turns on logging in the library, basically the library always "logs" but the logging infrastructure has no backend to actually print anything until the application sets a backend or they set this environment variable.
[[["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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14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 document provides a comprehensive list of available versions, ranging from the latest release candidate \u003ccode\u003e2.37.0-rc\u003c/code\u003e down to version \u003ccode\u003e2.11.0\u003c/code\u003e, along with their respective links to trace environment documentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eEnvironment variables like \u003ccode\u003eGOOGLE_CLOUD_CPP_TRACE_SERVICE_ENDPOINT\u003c/code\u003e allow for the customization of the library's behavior, specifically by overriding default endpoint settings, which is helpful for troubleshooting.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eTracing gRPC calls can be enabled via \u003ccode\u003eGOOGLE_CLOUD_CPP_ENABLE_TRACING=rpc\u003c/code\u003e, which will output request and response information, often with the need to set \u003ccode\u003eGOOGLE_CLOUD_CPP_ENABLE_CLOG\u003c/code\u003e to display the logs.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe behavior of gRPC tracing can be modified with \u003ccode\u003eGOOGLE_CLOUD_CPP_TRACING_OPTIONS\u003c/code\u003e, allowing for adjustments to output format and field truncation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003e\u003ccode\u003eGOOGLE_CLOUD_CPP_ENABLE_CLOG=yes\u003c/code\u003e enables logging in the library, allowing it to output to the program's console and can be used as a logging backend when another is not configured.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]
