RePlAce stuck at "RePlAce Version: 1.0.0" in the log file

[vrlsoftwareg]

RePlAce, ntuplace3, ntuplace4h all seem to be setup ok.
Using ubuntu 22.04

The qflow stage for "placement" produces

Running RePlAce placement
RePlAce -bmflag ispd -lef ~/.local/share/qflow/tech/osu018/osu018_stdcells.lef -def ~/qflow-test/layout/map9v3_preplace.def -output outputs -dpflag NTU3 -dploc ~/.local/share/qflow/bin/ntuplace3
~/.local/share/qflow/bin/qrouter: 20: [: =: unexpected operator
~/.local/share/qflow/bin/qrouter: 20: [: =: unexpected operator
. . .

The errors seem to be caused because RePlAce was just stuck at "RePlAce Version: 1.0.0"

This is what happens also if i run the above "RePlAce ..." command from the console prompt

Do you have any ideas why this may be stuck at the prompt ?

To me, it seems that "RePlAce" is not accepting the "parameters"
The same thing happens if "RePlAce" is run without parameters ?