diff --git a/travis/setup_conda.sh b/travis/setup_conda.sh
index 08889c0..4b6dac6 100755
--- a/travis/setup_conda.sh
+++ b/travis/setup_conda.sh
@@ -7,8 +7,24 @@
 #
 # The present script was added later.
 
+if [[ $DEBUG == True ]]; then
+    set -x
+fi
+
+# First check: if the build should be run at all based on the event type
+
+if [[ ! -z $EVENT_TYPE ]]; then
+    for event in $EVENT_TYPE; do
+        if [[ $TRAVIS_EVENT_TYPE = $event ]]; then
+            allow_to_build=True
+        fi
+    done
+    if [[ $allow_to_build != True ]]; then
+        travis_terminate 0
+    fi
+fi
 
-# We first check if any of the custom tags are used to skip the build
+# Second check: if any of the custom tags are used to skip the build
 
 TR_SKIP="\[(skip travis|travis skip)\]"
 DOCS_ONLY="\[docs only|build docs\]"
@@ -16,11 +32,11 @@ DOCS_ONLY="\[docs only|build docs\]"
 # Skip build if the commit message contains [skip travis] or [travis skip]
 # Remove workaround once travis has this feature natively
 # https://github.com/travis-ci/travis-ci/issues/5032
-if [[ ! -z $(echo $TRAVIS_COMMIT_MESSAGE | grep -E $TR_SKIP) ]]; then
+if [[ ! -z $(echo $TRAVIS_COMMIT_MESSAGE | grep -E "$TR_SKIP") ]]; then
     echo "Travis was requested to be skipped by the commit message, exiting."
     travis_terminate 0
-elif [[ ! -z $(echo $TRAVIS_COMMIT_MESSAGE | grep -E $DOCS_ONLY) ]]; then
-    if [[ $SETUP_CMD != *build_docs* ]] || [[ $SETUP_CMD != *build_sphinx* ]]; then
+elif [[ ! -z $(echo $TRAVIS_COMMIT_MESSAGE | grep -E "$DOCS_ONLY") ]]; then
+    if [[ $SETUP_CMD != *build_docs* ]] && [[ $SETUP_CMD != *build_sphinx* ]]; then
         echo "Only docs build was requested by the commit message, exiting."
         travis_terminate 0
     fi
diff --git a/travis/setup_dependencies_common.sh b/travis/setup_dependencies_common.sh
index bce033d..24fa9a4 100755
--- a/travis/setup_dependencies_common.sh
+++ b/travis/setup_dependencies_common.sh
@@ -4,18 +4,6 @@ hash -r
 
 set -e
 
-if [[ ! -z $EVENT_TYPE ]]; then
-    for event in $EVENT_TYPE; do
-        if [[ $TRAVIS_EVENT_TYPE = $event ]]; then
-            allow_to_build=True
-        fi
-    done
-fi
-
-if [[ $allow_to_build != True ]]; then
-    travis_terminate 0
-fi
-
 # We need to do this before updating conda, as $CONDA_CHANNELS may be a
 # conda environment variable for some Miniconda versions, too that needs to
 # be space separated.
@@ -429,7 +417,7 @@ fi
 # cache before starting the tests/docs build. See details in
 # https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/5836
 
-if [[ $SETUP_CMD == build_sphinx* ]] || [[ $SETUP_CMD == build_docs* ]]; then
+if [[ $SETUP_CMD == *build_sphinx* ]] || [[ $SETUP_CMD == *build_docs* ]]; then
     python -c "import matplotlib.pyplot"
 fi