I downloaded mariadb java-client 1.4.5 from here:
https://mariadb.com/my_portal/download/java-client/1.4

I saw that this page has the source code in two different formats:
mariadb-java-client-1.4.5-sources.jar
mariadb-java-client-1.4.5.tar.gz

I downloaded both, compared them, and found out that some source code files are different.
These java files differ:

org/mariadb/jdbc/MariaDbDatabaseMetaData.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/MariaDbServerPreparedStatement.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/MariaDbStatement.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/internal/failover/impl/MastersSlavesListener.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/internal/failover/thread/FailoverLoop.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/internal/packet/send/SendGssApiAuthPacket.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/internal/protocol/AbstractQueryProtocol.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/internal/protocol/Protocol.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/internal/util/constant/Version.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/internal/util/dao/PrepareResult.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/internal/util/scheduler/DynamicSizedSchedulerImpl.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/internal/util/scheduler/DynamicSizedSchedulerInterface.java
org/mariadb/jdbc/internal/util/scheduler/SchedulerServiceProviderHolder.java

The .tar.gz version of Version.java contains the field version = "1.4.5-SNAPSHOT".
The changes seem related to the changes mentioned in the release notes.

Suggested Fixes:
a) make sure that both files are built from the released version of the source code.
b) remove the tar.gz file and add a link to the source code repository, for anyone who wants more than what's provided in sources.jar