How to manually edit gitolite config file (running with redmine)

Say I want to manually edit the configuration files of gitolite (conf/gitolite.conf and add keys). What is the correct way to do so?

Logged as git on the server, I have tried to clone git@localhost:gitolite-admin, perform my changes, then push.

Note that I have used a --force and non-fast forward edits (rebase to rewrite history). However, the push seems to worked, since a new clone checkout include my changes. But, I can not observe any changement from outside. I am pretty confident in my edits and would know if I miss a step (such as a daemon to restart or anything else...).