Headless projectBuild command fails with make error when trying to autoImport and build a project using a new workspace

The issue occurs with clean workspaces that were never used before (no .metadata folder). If running the projectBuild command with a clean workspace, it will fail with an generic make error. But in the meantime, a .metadata folder in the workspace was created. When the same exact command is run again, it will now work. To avoid the error completely, the projectImport command can be used first to import the project to a clean new workspace. If it is not a new workspace, then the projectBuild command with autoImport can be run successfully.