[o11c]

Have you tried:

    alias ls='ls -U'

? I find my ^C usually makes it through if I need it. Sometimes minimizing the terminal or switching desktops also helps.

(it probably helps that I use a filesystem - btrfs - that is fundamentally append-based so gives a meaningful order even with -U)

[queuebert]

I have not -- thanks for the tip. Having to ^C out of an ls is sub-optimal, to say the least.