diff --git a/examples/common.cpp b/examples/common.cpp
index 52ca32372..c82aafbbc 100644
--- a/examples/common.cpp
+++ b/examples/common.cpp
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ void process_escapes(std::string& input) {
     input.resize(output_idx);
 }
 
-bool validate_params(const std::string& arg, int argc, int& i, char** argv, const gpt_params& default_params, bool optional = false) {
+bool validate_params(const std::string& arg, int argc, int& i, char** argv, bool optional = false) {
     if (++i >= argc) {
         if (optional) {
             // Argument is optional and not present, return false
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ bool validate_params(const std::string& arg, int argc, int& i, char** argv, cons
 
     const std::string& nextArg = argv[i];
 
-    if (nextArg.empty() || (nextArg[0] == '-' && !std::isdigit(nextArg[1]))) {
+    if (nextArg.empty() || (nextArg.size() >= 2 && nextArg[0] == '-' && !std::isdigit(nextArg[1]))) {
         throw std::runtime_error("Missing value for parameter: " + arg);
     }
 
@@ -129,28 +129,28 @@ bool gpt_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params) {
             }
 
             if (arg == "-s" || arg == "--seed") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.seed = std::stoul(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "-t" || arg == "--threads") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.n_threads = std::stoi(argv[i]);
                 if (params.n_threads <= 0) {
                     params.n_threads = std::thread::hardware_concurrency();
                 }
             } else if (arg == "-p" || arg == "--prompt") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.prompt = argv[i];
             } else if (arg == "-e") {
                 escape_prompt = true;
             } else if (arg == "--prompt-cache") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.path_prompt_cache = argv[i];
             } else if (arg == "--prompt-cache-all") {
                 params.prompt_cache_all = true;
             } else if (arg == "--prompt-cache-ro") {
                 params.prompt_cache_ro = true;
             } else if (arg == "-f" || arg == "--file") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 std::ifstream file(argv[i]);
                 if (!file) {
                     fprintf(stderr, "error: failed to open file '%s'\n", argv[i]);
@@ -162,89 +162,89 @@ bool gpt_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params) {
                     params.prompt.pop_back();
                 }
             } else if (arg == "-n" || arg == "--n-predict") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.n_predict = std::stoi(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--top-k") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.top_k = std::stoi(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "-c" || arg == "--ctx-size") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.n_ctx = std::stoi(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "-gqa" || arg == "--gqa") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.n_gqa = std::stoi(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "-eps" || arg == "--rms-norm-eps") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.rms_norm_eps = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--rope-freq-base") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.rope_freq_base = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--rope-freq-scale") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.rope_freq_scale = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--memory-f32") {
                 params.memory_f16 = false;
             } else if (arg == "--top-p") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.top_p = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--temp") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.temp = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--tfs") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.tfs_z = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--typical") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.typical_p = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--repeat-last-n") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.repeat_last_n = std::stoi(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--repeat-penalty") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.repeat_penalty = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--frequency-penalty") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.frequency_penalty = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--presence-penalty") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.presence_penalty = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--mirostat") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.mirostat = std::stoi(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--mirostat-lr") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.mirostat_eta = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--mirostat-ent") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.mirostat_tau = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--cfg-negative-prompt") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.cfg_negative_prompt = argv[i];
             } else if (arg == "--cfg-scale") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.cfg_scale = std::stof(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "-b" || arg == "--batch-size") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.n_batch = std::stoi(argv[i]);
                 params.n_batch = std::min(512, params.n_batch);
             } else if (arg == "--keep") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.n_keep = std::stoi(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--chunks") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.n_chunks = std::stoi(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "-m" || arg == "--model") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.model = argv[i];
             } else if (arg == "-a" || arg == "--alias") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.model_alias = argv[i];
             } else if (arg == "--lora") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.lora_adapter = argv[i];
                 params.use_mmap = false;
             } else if (arg == "--lora-base") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.lora_base = argv[i];
             } else if (arg == "-i" || arg == "--interactive") {
                 params.interactive = true;
@@ -261,7 +261,7 @@ bool gpt_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params) {
             } else if (arg == "--mlock") {
                 params.use_mlock = true;
             } else if (arg == "--gpu-layers" || arg == "-ngl" || arg == "--n-gpu-layers") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
     #ifdef LLAMA_SUPPORTS_GPU_OFFLOAD
                 params.n_gpu_layers = std::stoi(argv[i]);
     #else
@@ -269,14 +269,14 @@ bool gpt_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params) {
                 fprintf(stderr, "warning: see main README.md for information on enabling GPU BLAS support\n");
     #endif
             } else if (arg == "--main-gpu" || arg == "-mg") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
     #ifdef GGML_USE_CUBLAS
                 params.main_gpu = std::stoi(argv[i]);
     #else
           fprintf(stderr, "warning: llama.cpp was compiled without cuBLAS. It is not possible to set a main GPU.\n");
     #endif
             } else if (arg == "--tensor-split" || arg == "-ts") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
     #ifdef GGML_USE_CUBLAS
                 std::string arg_next = argv[i];
 
@@ -313,21 +313,21 @@ bool gpt_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params) {
             } else if (arg == "--verbose-prompt") {
                 params.verbose_prompt = true;
             } else if (arg == "-r" || arg == "--reverse-prompt") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.antiprompt.push_back(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--perplexity") {
                 params.perplexity = true;
             } else if (arg == "--hellaswag") {
                 params.hellaswag = true;
             } else if (arg == "--hellaswag-tasks") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.hellaswag_tasks = std::stoi(argv[i]);
             } else if (arg == "--ignore-eos") {
                 params.logit_bias[llama_token_eos()] = -INFINITY;
             } else if (arg == "--no-penalize-nl") {
                 params.penalize_nl = false;
             } else if (arg == "-l" || arg == "--logit-bias") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 std::stringstream ss(argv[i]);
                 llama_token key;
                 char sign;
@@ -350,16 +350,16 @@ bool gpt_params_parse(int argc, char ** argv, gpt_params & params) {
             } else if (arg == "--in-prefix-bos") {
                 params.input_prefix_bos = true;
             } else if (arg == "--in-prefix") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.input_prefix = argv[i];
             } else if (arg == "--in-suffix") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.input_suffix = argv[i];
             } else if (arg == "--grammar") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 params.grammar = argv[i];
             } else if (arg == "--grammar-file") {
-                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv, default_params);
+                validate_params(arg, argc, i, argv);
                 std::ifstream file(argv[i]);
                 if (!file) {
                     fprintf(stderr, "error: failed to open file '%s'\n", argv[i]);