Figure One shows the conventions used by RPM and the Debian package manager. When two package files have the same version number, you can use the release number to tell which package file contains the later release. These package file naming conventions are helpful. But, the power of package management doesn't lie in the names of package files. RPM, for instance, doesn't care about the name of a package file.
Names are merely for human use.
Instead, package managers rely on information stored in package files. The term meta-information means information about information. A checksum lets the package manager verify whether the package file is intact. The dependency and conflict information lets the package manager determine whether it should comply with an instruction to install the package.