breaking: prepare to deprecate the devel branch (#5122)

<!-- This is an auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai
-->
## Summary by CodeRabbit

* **Documentation**
* Updated installation and contributor guides to reference the master
development flow and revised download/setup instructions.
* Clarified contributor workflow to create and use new branches instead
of working directly on the old development branch.

* **Chores**
* CI/CD workflows and deployment now target the master branch for
pushes; Pages deployment triggers on master.
* Removed obsolete automation/autoupdate settings and explicit branch
targets from config.

<sub>✏️ Tip: You can customize this high-level summary in your review
settings.</sub>
<!-- end of auto-generated comment: release notes by coderabbit.ai -->

---------

Signed-off-by: Jinzhe Zeng <njzjz@qq.com>
Co-authored-by: pre-commit-ci[bot] <66853113+pre-commit-ci[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: 3 people

.github/dependabot.yml

@@ -4,9 +4,7 @@ updates:
     directory: "/"
     schedule:
       interval: "weekly"
-    target-branch: "devel"
   - package-ecosystem: "pip"
     directory: "/"
     schedule:
       interval: "weekly"
-    target-branch: "devel"

.github/workflows/build_wheel.yml

@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ jobs:
       name: github-pages
       url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    if: github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/devel' && github.repository_owner == 'deepmodeling'
+    if: github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/master' && github.repository_owner == 'deepmodeling'
     steps:
       - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
         id: deployment

.github/workflows/todo.yml

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ name: TODO workflow
 on:
   push:
     branches:
-      - devel
+      - master
 jobs:
   build:
     if: github.repository_owner == 'deepmodeling'

.pre-commit-config.yaml

@@ -159,5 +159,3 @@ repos:
       - id: pylint
         entry: env PYTHONPATH=source/checker pylint
         files: ^deepmd/
-ci:
-  autoupdate_branch: devel

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -36,13 +36,6 @@ You can help other users of deepmd-kit in the following way
 
 ## Before you contribute
 
-### Overview of DeePMD-kit
-
-Currently, we maintain two main branch:
-
-- master: stable branch with version tag
-- devel : branch for developers
-
 ### Developer guide
 
 See [documentation](https://deepmd.readthedocs.io/) for coding conventions, API and other needs-to-know of the code.
@@ -58,13 +51,11 @@ Please perform the following steps to create your Pull Request to this repositor
 
 ### Step 2: Clone the forked repository to local storage and set configurations
 
-1. Clone your own repo, not the public repo (from deepmodeling) ! And change the branch to devel.
+1. Clone your own repo, not the public repo (from deepmodeling) !
 
    ```bash
    git clone https://github.com/$username/deepmd-kit.git
    # Replace `$username` with your GitHub ID
-
-   git checkout devel
    ```
 
 2. Add deepmodeling's repo as your remote repo, we can name it "upstream". And fetch upstream's latest codes to your workstation.
@@ -76,23 +67,23 @@ Please perform the following steps to create your Pull Request to this repositor
    git fetch upstream
 
    # If your current codes are behind the latest codes, you should merge latest codes first.
-   # Notice you should merge from "devel"!
-   git merge upstream/devel
+   git merge upstream/master
    ```
 
 3. Modify your codes and design unit tests.
 
-4. Commit your changes
+4. Commit your changes to a new branch
 
    ```bash
+   git checkout -b branch1
    git status # Checks the local status
    git add <file> ... # Adds the file(s) you want to commit. If you want to commit all changes, you can directly use `git add.`
    git commit -m "commit-message: update the xx"
    ```
 
 5. Push the changed codes to your original repo on github.
    ```bash
-   git push origin devel
+   git push origin branch1
    ```
 
 ### Alternatively: Create a new branch

doc/install/easy-install-dev.md

@@ -1,15 +1,15 @@
 # Easy install the latest development version
 
-DeePMD-kit is actively developed in the `devel` branch. The documentation of the [`latest`](https://docs.deepmodeling.com/projects/deepmd/en/latest/) version matches the `devel` branch.
+DeePMD-kit is actively developed in the `master` branch. The documentation of the [`latest`](https://docs.deepmodeling.com/projects/deepmd/en/latest/) version matches the `master` branch.
 
 The following is the way to install the pre-compiled packages without [building from source](./install-from-source.md). All of them are built with [GitHub Actions](../development/cicd.md).
 
 ## Install with docker
 
-The [`devel` tag](https://github.com/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit/pkgs/container/deepmd-kit/131827568?tag=devel) is used to mark the latest development version with CUDA 12.2 support:
+The `master` tag is used to mark the latest development version with CUDA 12.2 support:
 
 ```bash
-docker pull ghcr.io/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit:devel
+docker pull ghcr.io/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit:master
 ```
 
 ## Install with pip
@@ -26,10 +26,10 @@ pip install -U --pre deepmd-kit[gpu,cu12,lmp,torch] --extra-index-url https://de
 **Supported backends**: TensorFlow {{ tensorflow_icon }}
 :::
 
-The [pre-comiled C library](./install-from-c-library.md) can be downloaded from [here](https://nightly.link/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit/workflows/package_c/devel/libdeepmd_c-0-libdeepmd_c.tar.gz.zip), or via a shell command:
+The [pre-compiled C library](./install-from-c-library.md) can be downloaded from [here](https://nightly.link/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit/workflows/package_c/master/libdeepmd_c-0-libdeepmd_c.tar.gz.zip), or via a shell command:
 
 ```sh
-wget https://nightly.link/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit/workflows/package_c/devel/libdeepmd_c-0-libdeepmd_c.tar.gz.zip && unzip libdeepmd_c-0-libdeepmd_c.tar.gz.zip
+wget https://nightly.link/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit/workflows/package_c/master/libdeepmd_c-0-libdeepmd_c.tar.gz.zip && unzip libdeepmd_c-0-libdeepmd_c.tar.gz.zip
 ```
 
 ## Pre-release conda-forge packages

doc/install/install-from-source.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Install from source code
 
-Please follow our [GitHub](https://github.com/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit) webpage to download the [latest released version](https://github.com/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit/tree/master) and [development version](https://github.com/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit/tree/devel).
+Please follow our [GitHub](https://github.com/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit) webpage to download the source code of a specific version or the [development version](https://github.com/deepmodeling/deepmd-kit/tree/master).
 
 Or get the DeePMD-kit source code by `git clone`