Elasticsearch update mapping using json - json

Question

I want to change the type of a field from 'string' to 'date' (format: 'epoch_second' to be specific). Since there is no way to update the mappings of an existing index, I need to make a new index for which I mostly want to use the mapping from my existing index. Here is what I am using:
curl -XGET 'http://localhost:9200/sam/saga/_mapping?pretty' >saga.json
to dump the mapping of the current index into a json file, the content of which is this:
{
"sam" : {
"mappings" : {
"saga" : {
"properties" : {
"name" : {
"type" : "long"
}
}
}
}
}
}
then I replace
"name" : {
"type" : "long"
}
with
"name" : {
"type" : "date"
}
and save the new file as saga2.json. then run this
curl -XPUT 'http://localhost:9200/sam/_mapping/saga2' -d #saga2.json
However, when I check the mapping of the new index, all types have changed to "string" now.
I even have this problem using the Elasticsearch's example.
Does anyone know what is wrong?

Answer 1

You need to make one more change in your saga2.json file, namely the mapping type name saga -> saga2 (Now you probably need to rename it all to saga3
{
"sam" : {
"mappings" : {
"saga2" : { <--- here
"properties" : {
"name" : {
"type" : "date" <--- and here
}
}
}
}
}
}
Then only you can run this:
curl -XPUT 'http://localhost:9200/sam/_mapping/saga2' -d #saga2.json