Running 5.3.1 on Redhat Ent Linux

Ah, i didn’t know you used the commandline.

Yes, indeed! JabRef docs about commandline use state this:

Locate JabRef.bat (Windows) or JabRef (Linux, Mac OS). In the portable versions, this is JabRef-5.0-portable_windows\JabRef\runtime\bin\JabRef.bat and JabRef-5.0-portable_linux\JabRef\lib\runtime\bin\JabRef .

Do not use JabRef\JabRef.exe or bin/JabRef