These are the steps to build latest libvips (8.7.4) deb package on ubuntu 18.04
##1. install build scripts
# sudo apt install build-essential devscripts
##2. download vips source
# 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
##3. download 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
##4. install vips build dependencies enable deb-src
# sudo sed -Ei 's/^# deb-src /deb-src /' /etc/apt/sources.list
# sudo apt update# mk-build-deps vips --install --root-cmd sudo --remove
now you have all the dependencies installed
##5. disable python-vipscc 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
##6. build
# debuild -i -us -uc -b
$ 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
##7. install
$ sudo dpkg -i ../libvips42_8.7.4-1_amd64.deb ../libvips-tools_8.7.4-1_amd64.deb
##8. clean up the dependencies we installed from step 4
$ sudo apt remove vips-build-deps
$ sudo apt autoremove