pg_ctl reload seems to not work

Hi,

When I'm using pg_ctl to reload the config of postgres and nothing
happens. I mean that the new configuration seems to not be reloaded
(even if the logs say that a SIGHUP has been sent to postmaster).

The command line I'm using is the following:
su -l postgres -s /bin/sh -c "/usr/bin/pg_ctl reload -D $PGDATA -s"

($PGDATA is well defined before the call)

The conf file I modified is postgresql.conf which is located in
/var/lib/pgsql/data and I changed the value of tcpip_socket from true to
false (setting this value from false to true has the same effect).

The postgresql version I'm running is 7.3.2

Here below you will find an extract of what i have done.

Thanx for your help.

Fred.

<extract>

Before perfoming the following command line, I set tcpip_socket to
false.

# su -l postgres -s /bin/sh -c "/usr/bin/pg_ctl reload -D $PGDATA -s"

In the log, only this line appears:
LOG: Received SIGHUP, reloading configuration files

# psql -h localhost kp kp
Welcome to psql 7.3.2, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.
<blablabla...>

Duh!? if I set tcpip_socket to false, normally I should not be able to
connect to the db anymore by using -h option!

</extract>