docker stack deploy does not read env_file

[moonflash]

Description

Up until recently docker stack deploy was reading env_file values without any issues.
Few days ago i started having issues

Deploying stack to the swarm I use to do with
DOCKER_HOST=ssh://address docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml service_name env_file=/pat/to/production.env

Steps to reproduce the issue:

1. docker-compose.yml has

environment:
  API_URL: ${API_URL}

2. DOCKER_HOST=ssh://address docker stack deploy -c docker-compose.yml service_name env_file=/pat/to/production.env

Describe the results you received:
even though I got this as a stdout:

Deployment environment:
SMS_SERVICE_SECRET=**********
SMS_SERVICE_URL=https://*****.execute-api.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/prod
API_URL=https://myurl.com
FRONTEND_APP_URL=https://frontend.com

I got this error:

The SMS_SERVICE_SECRET variable is not set. Defaulting to a blank string.
The SMS_SERVICE_URL variable is not set. Defaulting to a blank string.
The API_URL variable is not set. Defaulting to a blank string.
The FRONTEND_APP_URL variable is not set. Defaulting to a blank string.

Describe the results you expected:
if API_URL=https://api.url is passed properly , docker-compose.yml should read ${API_URL}

Additional information you deem important (e.g. issue happens only occasionally):

Output of docker version:
Locally on my MACOS:

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Cloud integration: 1.0.9
 Version:           20.10.5
 API version:       1.41
 Go version:        go1.13.15
 Git commit:        55c4c88
 Built:             Tue Mar  2 20:13:00 2021
 OS/Arch:           darwin/amd64
 Context:           default
 Experimental:      true

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          20.10.5
  API version:      1.41 (minimum version 1.12)
  Go version:       go1.13.15
  Git commit:       363e9a8
  Built:            Tue Mar  2 20:15:47 2021
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     true
 containerd:
  Version:          1.4.3
  GitCommit:        269548fa27e0089a8b8278fc4fc781d7f65a939b
 runc:
  Version:          1.0.0-rc92
  GitCommit:        ff819c7e9184c13b7c2607fe6c30ae19403a7aff
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

on the remote server:

Client:
 Version:           19.03.6-ce
 API version:       1.40
 Go version:        go1.13.4
 Git commit:        369ce74
 Built:             Fri May 29 04:01:26 2020
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Experimental:      false

Server:
 Engine:
  Version:          19.03.6-ce
  API version:      1.40 (minimum version 1.12)
  Go version:       go1.13.4
  Git commit:       369ce74
  Built:            Fri May 29 04:01:57 2020
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          1.3.2
  GitCommit:        ff48f57fc83a8c44cf4ad5d672424a98ba37ded6
 runc:
  Version:          1.0.0-rc10
  GitCommit:        dc9208a3303feef5b3839f4323d9beb36df0a9dd
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.18.0
  GitCommit:        fec3683

Output of docker info:

Client:
 Debug Mode: false

Server:
 Containers: 10
  Running: 5
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 5
 Images: 33
 Server Version: 19.03.6-ce
 Storage Driver: overlay2
  Backing Filesystem: xfs
  Supports d_type: true
  Native Overlay Diff: true
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local logentries splunk syslog
 Swarm: active
  NodeID: 7buusrqh2s0li50sm6qq730q3
  Is Manager: true
  ClusterID: 1ycj2j0vuieo4ovmshxfs50i7
  Managers: 5
  Nodes: 5
  Default Address Pool: 10.0.0.0/8
  SubnetSize: 24
  Data Path Port: 4789
  Orchestration:
   Task History Retention Limit: 5
  Raft:
   Snapshot Interval: 10000
   Number of Old Snapshots to Retain: 0
   Heartbeat Tick: 1
   Election Tick: 10
  Dispatcher:
   Heartbeat Period: 5 seconds
  CA Configuration:
   Expiry Duration: 3 months
   Force Rotate: 0
  Autolock Managers: false
  Root Rotation In Progress: false
  Node Address: 172.31.23.143
  Manager Addresses:
   172.31.18.20:2377
   172.31.23.143:2377
   172.31.24.171:2377
   172.31.29.122:2377
   172.31.39.121:2377
 Runtimes: runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: ff48f57fc83a8c44cf4ad5d672424a98ba37ded6
 runc version: dc9208a3303feef5b3839f4323d9beb36df0a9dd
 init version: fec3683
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: default
 Kernel Version: 4.14.198-152.320.amzn2.x86_64
 Operating System: Amazon Linux 2
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: x86_64
 CPUs: 2
 Total Memory: 3.851GiB
 Name: demo
 ID: MDN4:I5TD:XAAT:3MWJ:LP2B:72WU:GPZ7:I3JH:YP2E:6AXG:ABZN:6CNH
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 Username: myorbltd
 Registry: https://index.docker.io/v1/
 Labels:
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

Additional environment details (AWS, VirtualBox, physical, etc.):