strange connection using cmd prompt

[mysty]

I just installed apache2triad about 3 weeks ago.  Using mysql from the cmd prompt was not a problem until yesterday.  If I type "mysql" and enter, then type "show databases;", I can see my databases and can do the normal things.
If I type "mysql -h localhost, -u root, -p password" I get an error message that says "unknown mysql host server 'localhost'  ".  Any variation of host, user, or password shows the same thing.
Any ideas of where to look in my configuration that would cause this?

[fenway]

Your localhost alias may not be correct.

[mysty]

I finally figured this one out.  I feel like such a newbie (which I am).
The problem was that I started to put a semicolon at the end of the DOS command.  Like this  mysql -h hostname -u username -p password;
As soon as I figured this out, everything worked fine.