using ifeq statement in makefile, missing separator even when indented with tab correctly - makefile

Question

I was just practising with GNU make and I was trying to write a clean target, the make file is this:
includePath := -I $(CURDIR)
outputDir = $(CURDIR)/output
COMPILER := g++
standard := -std=c++17
#sourceFiles
main.cpp := main.cpp
#output files
binaryPath = $(outputDir)
binary = main.out
#int_binaryPath = intermediate binary
int_binaryPath = $(outputDir)/int_binaries
int_binary = main.o
GPP = $(COMPILER) $(standard) $(includePath)
#print info while make is executing
# $(info $(includeDir) )
VPATH = outputDir/int_binaries $(CURDIR)/glad/src
#build=compile,link and run
$(binary): $(int_binary) glad.c -lGL -lGLU -lglfw -ldl
$(GPP) $(int_binaryPath)/main.o $(CURDIR)/glad/src/glad.c -o $(binaryPath)/$# -lGL -lGLU -lglfw -ldl
$(int_binary): $(main.cpp)
$(GPP) $(main.cpp) -c -o $(int_binaryPath)/$(int_binary)
build: $(binary)
$(binaryPath)/$(binary)
build#bg: $(binary)
$(binaryPath)/$(binary) &
rebuild: clean build
#echo "rebuild successful"
.PHONY: clean
clean:
ifeq($(wildcard $(outputDir)/$(binary)), $(outputDir)/$(binary))
rm -rf $(outputDir)/$(binary)
else ifeq($(wildcard $(outputDir)/$(int_binary)), $(outputDir)/$(int_binary))
rm -rf $(outputDir)/$(int_binary)
endif
now the part that is throwing up error is this:
.PHONY: clean
clean:
ifeq($(wildcard $(outputDir)/$(binary)), $(outputDir)/$(binary)) #this has spaces, line 47
rm -rf $(outputDir)/$(binary) #this has 2 tabs, but even 1 tab didn't work
else ifeq($(wildcard $(outputDir)/$(int_binary)), $(outputDir)/$(int_binary))
rm -rf $(outputDir)/$(int_binary)
endif
now, when I do make clean, it returns the following error:
makefile:47: *** missing separator. Stop.
What exactly am I doing wrong? Why isn't it working and what does the error mean?

Answer 1

You have to have a space between the ifeq and the open paren.
You have other issues; for example there's no comma between words in the wildcard function, so you're literally asking it to look for the file ./output/main.out, (including the ,) exists.
Anyway, this is not needed because rm -rf foo is simply a no-op if foo doesn't exist... you don't need all this complexity.