You can use fix and continue to relink source files after you make changes, without recompiling the entire program. You can then continue execution of the program.
To fix your file:
Although you can do an unlimited number of fixes, consider rebuilding your program after doing several fixes in a row. Fix changes the program image in memory, but not on the disk. As you do more fixes, the memory image gets out of sync with what is on the disk.
Fix and continue does not make changes within your executable file, only within the .o files and the memory image. Once you have finished debugging a program, you need to rebuild your program to merge the changes into the executable.