Reduce release branch maintenance overhead (#5245)

* Reduce release branch maintenance overhead

* Fix the var name

* Check if condition needed on downstream job

* Remove unnecessary condition

.github/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -84,6 +84,10 @@ jobs:
 
   testLatestDeps:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    # release branches are excluded
+    # because any time a new library version is released to maven central it can fail
+    # which requires unnecessary release branch maintenance, especially for patches
+    if: ${{ !startsWith(github.ref_name, 'v') }}
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2.3.4
 
@@ -145,6 +149,10 @@ jobs:
           arguments: ":smoke-tests:test -PsmokeTestSuite=${{ matrix.smoke-test-suite }}"
 
   setup-muzzle-matrix:
+    # release branches are excluded
+    # because any time a new library version is released to maven central it can fail
+    # which requires unnecessary release branch maintenance, especially for patches
+    if: ${{ !startsWith(github.ref_name, 'v') }}
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     outputs:
       matrix: ${{ steps.set-matrix.outputs.matrix }}

.github/workflows/pr.yml

@@ -161,6 +161,10 @@ jobs:
           arguments: ":smoke-tests:test -PsmokeTestSuite=${{ matrix.smoke-test-suite }}"
 
   setup-muzzle-matrix:
+    # release branches are excluded
+    # because any time a new library version is released to maven central it can fail
+    # which requires unnecessary release branch maintenance, especially for patches
+    if: ${{ !startsWith(github.base_ref, 'v') }}
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     outputs:
       matrix: ${{ steps.set-matrix.outputs.matrix }}