[plug] Dependencies clarification

[Dennis Plester]

Not a serious question, but it is one from a relative newbie.

I went to update my version of Xcdroast from 0.98 alpha 7 to 0.98 alpha 8,
using the Red Hat 7 rpms from the Xcdroast site, in my Mandrake 7.2
installation. Rpmdrake complained that my system didn't meet the
dependencies, which was cdrecord 1.9.  I was certain that I had cdrecord
1.9, which I then confirmed with rpmdrake itself, so I switched off the
dependency check, and completed the upgrade.  Everything works fine, no
dramas.  The problem was that Mandrake's cdrecord package has "mdk" included
in the package name as far as I can gather.

My question is this. Are the dependency checks with rpms an actual check for
the required program, libraries, etc, or just a simple scan of the package
database, looking for package name matches? If so, this seems simplistic,
particularly when distributions put their initials in the file/package
names. Am I risking much when I switch off dependency checks if I'm certain
the requirements are met?

Whoops, two questions, but they are related...

Thanks in advance.

Dennis.