This directory contains components to exporttracescaptured withOpenTelemetrytoCloud Trace. Traces are a form of telemetry where calls across multiple distributed systems can be collected in a centralized view, showing the sequence of calls and their latency. Cloud Trace can provide such views of your system calls.
The C++ client libraries are already instrumented to collect traces. You can enable the collection and export of traces with minimal changes to your application. It is not necessary to instrument your application too.
While this library isGA, please note Google Cloud C++ client libraries do not** followSemantic Versioning.
Please note Google Cloud C++ client libraries donotfollowSemantic Versioning.
Quickstart
The following shows the code that you'll run in thegoogle/cloud/opentelemetry/quickstart/directory, which demonstrates how to enable tracing in the Google Cloud client libraries.
#include "google/cloud/opentelemetry/configure_basic_tracing.h"
#include "google/cloud/storage/client.h"
#include "google/cloud/opentelemetry_options.h"
#include <iostream>
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
if (argc != 3) {
std::cerr << "Usage: " << argv[0] << " <bucket-name> <project-id>\n";
return 1;
}
std::string const bucket_name = argv[1];
std::string const project_id = argv[2];
// Create aliases to make the code easier to read.
namespace gc = ::google::cloud;
namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;
// Instantiate a basic tracing configuration which exports traces to Cloud
// Trace. By default, spans are sent in batches and always sampled.
auto project = gc::Project(project_id);
auto configuration = gc::otel::ConfigureBasicTracing(project);
// Create a client with OpenTelemetry tracing enabled.
auto options = gc::Options{}.set<gc::OpenTelemetryTracingOption>(true);
auto client = gcs::Client(options);
auto writer = client.WriteObject(bucket_name, "quickstart.txt");
writer << "Hello World!";
writer.Close();
if (!writer.metadata()) {
std::cerr << "Error creating object: " << writer.metadata().status()
<< "\n";
return 1;
}
std::cout << "Successfully created object: " << *writer.metadata() << "\n";
auto reader = client.ReadObject(bucket_name, "quickstart.txt");
if (!reader) {
std::cerr << "Error reading object: " << reader.status() << "\n";
return 1;
}
std::string contents{std::istreambuf_iterator<char>{reader}, {}};
std::cout << contents << "\n";
// The basic tracing configuration object goes out of scope. The collected
// spans are flushed to Cloud Trace.
return 0;
}
More Information
TheSetting up your development environmentguide describes how to set up a C++ development environment in various platforms, including the Google Cloud C++ client libraries.
[[["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 2025-09-04 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis page provides access to various versions of the C++ OpenTelemetry library, with version 2.37.0-rc being the latest release candidate.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe Google Cloud C++ OpenTelemetry Exporters library facilitates the export of traces, captured using OpenTelemetry, to Cloud Trace, enabling centralized views of distributed system calls.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe C++ client libraries automatically collect traces, requiring minimal application changes to enable and export them without additional instrumentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eA quickstart guide is provided, demonstrating how to enable tracing in the Google Cloud client libraries with code examples, showcasing minimal implementation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Cloud C++ client libraries do not follow Semantic Versioning.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["Version latestkeyboard_arrow_down\n\n- [2.42.0-rc (latest)](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/latest)\n- [2.41.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.41.0)\n- [2.40.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.40.0)\n- [2.39.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.39.0)\n- [2.38.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.38.0)\n- [2.37.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.37.0)\n- [2.36.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.36.0)\n- [2.35.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.35.0)\n- [2.34.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.34.0)\n- [2.33.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.33.0)\n- [2.32.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.32.0)\n- [2.31.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.31.0)\n- [2.30.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.30.0)\n- [2.29.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.29.0)\n- [2.28.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.28.0)\n- [2.27.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.27.0)\n- [2.26.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.26.0)\n- [2.25.1](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.25.1)\n- [2.24.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.24.0)\n- [2.23.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.23.0)\n- [2.22.1](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.22.1)\n- [2.21.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.21.0)\n- [2.20.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.20.0)\n- [2.19.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.19.0)\n- [2.18.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.18.0)\n- [2.17.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.17.0)\n- [2.16.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.16.0)\n- [2.15.1](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.15.1)\n- [2.14.0](/cpp/docs/reference/opentelemetry/2.14.0) \n\nGoogle Cloud C++ OpenTelemetry Exporters\n========================================\n\nThis directory contains components to export [traces](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/concepts/observability-primer/#distributed-traces) captured with [OpenTelemetry](https://opentelemetry.io/) to [Cloud Trace](https://cloud.google.com/trace). Traces are a form of telemetry where calls across multiple distributed systems can be collected in a centralized view, showing the sequence of calls and their latency. Cloud Trace can provide such views of your system calls.\n\nThe C++ client libraries are already instrumented to collect traces. You can enable the collection and export of traces with minimal changes to your application. It is not necessary to instrument your application too.\n\nWhile this library is **GA** , please note Google Cloud C++ client libraries do not\\*\\* follow [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).\n\nPlease note Google Cloud C++ client libraries do **not** follow [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).\n\n### Quickstart\n\nThe following shows the code that you'll run in the `google/cloud/opentelemetry/quickstart/` directory, which demonstrates how to enable tracing in the Google Cloud client libraries. \n\n #include \"google/cloud/opentelemetry/configure_basic_tracing.h\"\n #include \"google/cloud/storage/client.h\"\n #include \"google/cloud/opentelemetry_options.h\"\n #include \u003ciostream\u003e\n\n int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {\n if (argc != 3) {\n std::cerr \u003c\u003c \"Usage: \" \u003c\u003c argv[0] \u003c\u003c \" \u003cbucket-name\u003e \u003cproject-id\u003e\\n\";\n return 1;\n }\n std::string const bucket_name = argv[1];\n std::string const project_id = argv[2];\n\n // Create aliases to make the code easier to read.\n namespace gc = ::google::cloud;\n namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;\n\n // Instantiate a basic tracing configuration which exports traces to Cloud\n // Trace. By default, spans are sent in batches and always sampled.\n auto project = gc::Project(project_id);\n auto configuration = gc::otel::ConfigureBasicTracing(project);\n\n // Create a client with OpenTelemetry tracing enabled.\n auto options = gc::Options{}.set\u003cgc::OpenTelemetryTracingOption\u003e(true);\n auto client = gcs::Client(options);\n\n auto writer = client.WriteObject(bucket_name, \"quickstart.txt\");\n writer \u003c\u003c \"Hello World!\";\n writer.Close();\n if (!writer.metadata()) {\n std::cerr \u003c\u003c \"Error creating object: \" \u003c\u003c writer.metadata().status()\n \u003c\u003c \"\\n\";\n return 1;\n }\n std::cout \u003c\u003c \"Successfully created object: \" \u003c\u003c *writer.metadata() \u003c\u003c \"\\n\";\n\n auto reader = client.ReadObject(bucket_name, \"quickstart.txt\");\n if (!reader) {\n std::cerr \u003c\u003c \"Error reading object: \" \u003c\u003c reader.status() \u003c\u003c \"\\n\";\n return 1;\n }\n\n std::string contents{std::istreambuf_iterator\u003cchar\u003e{reader}, {}};\n std::cout \u003c\u003c contents \u003c\u003c \"\\n\";\n\n // The basic tracing configuration object goes out of scope. The collected\n // spans are flushed to Cloud Trace.\n\n return 0;\n }\n\n### More Information\n\n- The [Setting up your development environment](https://cloud.google.com/cpp/docs/setup) guide describes how to set up a C++ development environment in various platforms, including the Google Cloud C++ client libraries."]]