Backup on CD

[cr <cr orcon net nz>]

Sorry if this question has been answered many times before - but I want to 
back up chunks of data on my cd-writer, something I've never done before.

I've read the CD-writing HOWTO (which the X-CD-Roast homepage helpfully says 
is 'massively outdated').   I'm running RH7.2, I have X-CD-Roast and Gnome 
Toaster on my system, neither of which has a Help file.

What I would like to imagine will work is just to copy the chunk of data I 
want to back up, directory structure and all, to a spare directory on my hard 
drive and then use X-CD-Roast to burn it onto a CD.   However I can't find 
any simple statement to confirm that will work.

Also the HOWTO has left me wondering:

According to the HOWTO, I need mkisofs to create the right file structure, 
and cdrecord to burn it.      Does X-CD-Roast look after all that?

Also, according to the HOWTO, the standard ISO9660 format is limited to 8.3 
filenames.   Obviously my Linux setup uses longer names.   Also according to 
the HOWTO, Linux uses the Rock Ridge extensions which look after that.   Is 
that something else I can just forget about and leave to the software to fix?

Sorry if what I'm asking is very obvious.

cr