GNU make error code (e = -1) - makefile

Question

I have a strange problem. I have been previously using GNU make for the last 4 weeks with no issues. I'm pointing my make file to an avr toolchain to cross compile for an ATMEL processor. A few days ago, GNU make stopped working. When I run make I get the following output:
make (e=-1): Error -1
make: *** [main.o] Error -1
To try and get more insight to the problem, I ran the code with just the echo output using make -n. It prints all of the statements in the makefile, including the commands. A short snippet of this output is as follows:
echo
echo "=================================="
echo "Compiling: " main.c
echo "=================================="
"/c/Users/Shane Reynolds/Documents/CDU_embeddedSystems/CDUEmbeddedToolbox/avr_tools/bin/avr-gcc" -c -std=gnu99 -g -mmcu=atmega1281 -DF_CPU=16000000UL -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Os main.c -o main.o
You can see that the command is printed at the end of this short snippet of the output. If I copy and paste the command into the terminal then the process works fine - but doing this every time is annoying. To try and understand why GNU make was failing I ran the debug tag make -d and received a lot of output. The snippet of what I think is important is:
CreateProcess(C:\Users\Shane Reynolds\Documents\CDU_embeddedSystems\CDUEmbeddedToolbox\avr_tools\utils\bin\echo.exe,echo,...)
Putting child 0x0043fdf0 (main.o) PID 4486808 on the chain.
Live child 0x0043fdf0 (main.o) PID 4486808
Main thread handle = 0x000000a8
Reaping winning child 0x0043fdf0 PID 4486808
Live child 0x0043fdf0 (main.o) PID 4488168
Reaping losing child 0x0043fdf0 PID 4488168
make (e=-1): Error -1
make: *** [main.o] Error -1
Removing child 0x0043fdf0 PID 4488168 from chain.
Can anyone help me with this? I've spent a couple of days trying to figure this out. I really hope that it is not something glaringly obvious, or simple.
EDIT: to add a little bit more background, I am using this on Windows 8 - when I run make from either bash or cmd I get the same error message. The link to my makefile is:
https://pastebin.com/j7uMSLic
FURTHER EDIT: I've created a very simple makefile with a very simple source code - running this produces the same error, but I can use the AVR toolchain to compile and link manually just like the previous case.

Answer 1

Okay.
So it turns out that it was something to do with Git bash (the terminal that I was using). Somewhere, somehow, I think one of the path variables got messed up. I completely uninstalled Git, and then re-installed and it works fine now. Not sure how this happened, but am glad to have it fixed.
If anyone else has an explanation, or can add more insight to the problem and how it can be avoided then feel free to post below.