That could be an issue with the shell on Ubuntu.   On Ubuntu the default “sh” in PATH,

$ which sh

/bin/sh

- is usually a soft link to the minimal “dash” shell and not a more complete shell like the “bash” shell.

$ ls -l /bin/sh

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Jan 3  2020 /bin/sh -> dash*

I would try using the bash shell, e.g.., type “bash” in your terminal window and then run the command that produced the error,

$ bash

yourhostname[0]:~$

… run your command ...

If that fixes the issue, you might consider changing the /bin/sh link to point to bash instead of dash.  But you will need sudo/root privileges to do that, e.g.,

$ cd /bin

$ sudo rm sh

$ sudo ln -s bash sh

- R.