For folks trying to build NDK based AndroidOS projects this can be a show-stopper.  It's most often caused by having spaces in the NDK path (the $PATH to ndk-build) and/or your AOS project.

This is in reference to the git.kernel.org posting covering the matter which mis-diagnoses the underlying issue.

With the latest version of cygwin installed and the gnu make as the first make in the search path, the ndk-build script fails.

bash-3.2$ which make
/usr/bin/make
bash-3.2$ make -v
GNU Make 3.81
Copyright (C) 2006  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

This program built for i686-pc-cygwin

It fails because of "spaces" in windows directory paths.  If somebody puts the ndk under "C:\Program Files\ it will fail with the "non-gnu-compatible make failure":

bash-3.2$ echo $NDKPATH
/cygdrive/c/Program Files/android-sdk-windows/android-ndk-r4b

When ndk-build runs it evaluates as follows:

bash-3.2$ PROGDIR=$NDKPATH;export PROGDIR
bash-3.2$ echo $PROGDIR
/cygdrive/c/Program Files/android-sdk-windows/android-ndk-r4b
bash-3.2$ echo $OSTYPE
cygwin
bash-3.2$ cygpath -m $PROGDIR
C:/Program Files/android-sdk-windows/android-ndk-r4b

and

bash-3.2$ $NDKPATH/tndk-build
GNUMAKE = (/usr/bin/make)
PROGDIR_MIXED = (C:/Program Files/android-sdk-windows/android-ndk-r4b)
CYGWIN_GNUMAKE= (make: C:/Program: No such file or directory
make: *** No rule to make target `C:/Program'.  Stop.)
GMAKETRES = (0)

The ndk-build script never gets a chance to report that error.  By adding the following it does and would save a lot of forum questions.  Change line:

CYGWIN_GNUMAKE=`$GNUMAKE -f $PROGDIR_MIXED/build/core/check-cygwin-make.mk 2>&1`

to

CYGWIN_GNUMAKE=`$GNUMAKE -f "$PROGDIR_MIXED/build/core/check-cygwin-make.mk" 2>&1`

(just add the double-quotes)

Even putting  a SYMLINK in for "Program Files" to "Program_Files" did not help because cygpath breaks it.

With the above changes, when you run the ndk-build it will identify this problem properly.  You need to move your ndk to a folder that does not have spaces in the path as well as your project.

Good luck.