# ES Template versioning
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-template-versioning/163962
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [January 11, 2019, 11:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-template-versioning/163962 "2019-01-11T23:14:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@oxygen300](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/oxygen300)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2019, 11:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-template-versioning/163962/1 "2019-01-11T23:14:08Z")
Hi Team,
I have a question about the use case of `version` field in the index templates.
[https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/indices-templates.html#versioning-templates](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/indices-templates.html#versioning-templates)
I have observed that I can put any version number, doesn't have to follow any pattern.
As the doc also mentions, if we don't provide `version` while updating the template, the version is deleted.
So, my questions:
1. What is the exact use case for `version`?
2. Is there any way to retrieve a template by version number?
Thanks in advance!
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### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2019, 1:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-template-versioning/163962/2 "2019-01-14T01:49:58Z")
Per the docs;
> The `version` field is completely optional and it is meant solely for external management of templates.
So it'd be useful if you had all your code in a repo and wanted to use that value as another indicator of what has been deployed.
> [@oxygen300](#):
>
> 1. Is there any way to retrieve a template by version number?
It doesn't store all the versions, just the latest.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2019, 1:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/es-template-versioning/163962/3 "2019-02-11T01:49:59Z")
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