error running sstmac, couldnt find parameter in namespace

[mettios]

sim_parameters: could not find parameter name in namespace app1

I am testing a series of benchmarks using sst macro, and for some cases I get the following error:
"error: sim_parameters: could not find parameter name in namespace app1 sim_parameters.cc 879"
this is how the the parameters file for launch looks like:

...
node {
       app1 {
          launch_cmd = aprun −n 8 −N 2
          exe=./runtest
       }
}

Not sure what the problem is specifically because in some other cases it works just fine.
I tried adding a name parameter to app1 but same error appears when running the application using sstmac -f parameter_file
main question is, why does it even look for a name to build based on it