Caffe snapshots: .solverstate vs .caffemodel

Question

When training a network, the snapshots taken every N iterations come in two forms together. One is the .solverstate file, which I presume is exactly what it sounds like, storing

Answer 1

The solverstate file, as its name conveys, stores the state of the solver and not any information related to classification results. The model is saved as caffemodel file, which you can use to obtain classification results for your data. If you want to fine-tune your network you may use a pre-trained caffemodel file. This will save time as your network does not need to learn from scratch. But, in case your present training needs to be halted, due to a power cut or an unexpected reboot, you may resume your training form the previous snapshot of the solverstate. The difference between using the solverstate and the caffemodel files is that the former allows you to complete your training in the pre-determined manner while the latter may require changes in certain training parameters such as the maximum number of iterations.