diff --git a/tests/bufr_compare.sh b/tests/bufr_compare.sh
index 2fa007941..53609d7ba 100755
--- a/tests/bufr_compare.sh
+++ b/tests/bufr_compare.sh
@@ -153,6 +153,14 @@ status=$?
 set -e
 [ $status -eq 1 ]
 
+#----------------------------------------------------
+# ECC-656: using relative comparison (-R) with 'all'
+#----------------------------------------------------
+f='airc_142.bufr'
+echo 'set unpack=1;set airTemperature=228; set height=1.037e+04; set pack=1; write;' |\
+    ${tools_dir}/codes_bufr_filter -o $fBufrTmp - $f
+${tools_dir}/bufr_compare -R airTemperature=0.004,height=0.001 $f $fBufrTmp
+${tools_dir}/bufr_compare -R all=0.004 $f $fBufrTmp
 
 # Clean up
 # -------------
diff --git a/tools/bufr_compare.c b/tools/bufr_compare.c
index e465c27ec..d4398a30c 100644
--- a/tools/bufr_compare.c
+++ b/tools/bufr_compare.c
@@ -893,12 +893,22 @@ static int compare_values(grib_runtime_options* options, grib_handle* handle1, g
         }
 
         if (!compareAbsolute) {
+            int all_specified = 0; /* =1 if relative comparison with "all" specified */
             for (i=0;i<options->tolerance_count;i++) {
-                if (!strcmp((options->tolerance[i]).name,name)) {
+                if (!strcmp((options->tolerance[i]).name, "all")) {
+                    all_specified = 1;
                     value_tolerance=(options->tolerance[i]).double_value;
                     break;
                 }
             }
+            if (!all_specified) {
+                for (i=0;i<options->tolerance_count;i++) {
+                    if ( strcmp( (options->tolerance[i]).name,name)==0 ) {
+                        value_tolerance=(options->tolerance[i]).double_value;
+                        break;
+                    }
+                }
+            }
         }
 
         if((err1 = grib_get_double_array(handle1,name,dval1,&len1)) != GRIB_SUCCESS)
diff --git a/tools/grib_options.c b/tools/grib_options.c
index 4d2283a87..bcf6f2338 100644
--- a/tools/grib_options.c
+++ b/tools/grib_options.c
@@ -93,9 +93,9 @@ grib_options_help grib_options_help_list[] ={
   {"P:","key[:{s|d|i}],key[:{s|d|i}],...",
    "\n\t\tAs -p adding the declared keys to the default list.\n"},
   {"R:","key1=relative_error1,key2=relative_error2,...\n",
-   "\tCompare floating point values using the relative error as tolerance."
-"\n\t\tkey1=relative_error will compare key1 using relative_error1."
-"\n\t\tall=relative_error will compare all the floating point keys using relative_error. Default all=0.\n"},
+        "\tCompare floating point values using the relative error as tolerance."
+        "\n\t\tkey1=relative_error1 will compare key1 using relative_error1."
+        "\n\t\tall=relative_error will compare all the floating point keys using relative_error. Default all=0.\n"},
   {"S",0,"Strict. Only messages matching all the constraints are copied to"
    "\n\t\tthe output file\n"},
   {"T:","T | B | M | A","Message type. T->GTS, B->BUFR, M->METAR (Experimental),A->Any (Experimental).\n\t\t\tThe input file is interpreted according to the message type.\n"},