"fatal: Not a git repository" issued during 'make' from source code

Hi,

I am new to git and am trying to compile git-2.41.0 on RHEL7.  When I run 'make prefix=/usr/local all doc', I get the following error:

fatal: Not a git repository (or any parent up to mount point /tools)

Which I infer means that I need to do the build within a git repo.  Is that correct?  Or have I missed some basic step in the build process?

Thank you,