These are the steps to build latest libvips (8.7.4) deb package on Ubuntu 18.04.
Install the build dependencies.
sudo apt install build-essential devscripts
Next, get the latest vips sources.
wget https://github.com/libvips/libvips/releases/download/v8.7.4/vips-8.7.4.tar.gz
tar zxf vips-8.7.4.tar.gz
cd vips-8.7.4
Download the deb build package from launchpad
wget https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+archive/primary/+sourcefiles/vips/8.7.4-1/vips_8.7.4-1.debian.tar.xz
tar xvf vips_8.7.4-1.debian.tar.xz
Add the deb-src to your sources.
sudo sed -Ei 's/^# deb-src /deb-src /' /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update
To run mk-build-debs you will need equiv installed as well.
sudo apt install equiv
mk-build-deps vips --install --root-cmd sudo --remove
Now all required dependencies are installed.
you should use pyvips for python binding
Open debian/control in your favorite text editor and comment out (by adding #) the block beginning with Package: python-vipscc
To build the package run
debuild -i -us -uc -b
and wait for a while. Confirm that the build was successful by listing the created packages.
$ ls ../*.deb
../gir1.2-vips-8.0_8.7.4-1_amd64.deb ../libvips-doc_8.7.4-1_all.deb
../libvips42_8.7.4-1_amd64.deb ../libvips-tools_8.7.4-1_amd64.deb
../libvips-dev_8.7.4-1_amd64.deb
You can now install libvips and libvips-tools by running
sudo dpkg -i libvips42_8.7.4-1_amd64.deb libvips-tools_8.7.4-1_amd64.deb
If you want to install libvips-dev you will need gir1.2-vips installed as well:
sudo dpkg -i gir1.2-vips-8.0_8.7.4-1_amd64.deb libvips-dev_8.7.4-1_amd64.deb
Clean up the the things you used for building the package.
sudo apt remove vips-build-deps
sudo apt autoremove