diff --git a/base/Dockerfile b/base/Dockerfile
index 1bed7c007ee2de9e549131a7d0ea6e24da6efbaa..0d797115bae2861ea63055f5357c043dfa00320c 100644
--- a/base/Dockerfile
+++ b/base/Dockerfile
@@ -101,6 +101,10 @@ RUN R --slave -e "IRkernel::installspec(name = 'ir363', displayname = 'R 3.6.3')
 COPY base/fix-permissions /usr/local/bin/fix-permissions
 RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/fix-permissions
 
+# copy user setup file
+COPY base/user_setup.sh /opt/app-root/etc/
+RUN chmod +x /opt/app-root/etc/user_setup.sh
+
 RUN fix-permissions /opt/app-root/ && \
     fix-permissions /tmp/cache/ && \
     fix-permissions /usr/local/share/jupyter/ && \
diff --git a/base/user_setup.sh b/base/user_setup.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..651feb507e69402b73e963de560e814ea9d4a53f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/base/user_setup.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# user setup script
+# set git config
+if [ ! "$(git config --get user.name)" ]
+then
+    git config --global --add user.name "${JUPYTERHUB_USER}"
+fi
+if [ ! "$(git config --get user.email)" ]
+then
+    git config --global --add user.email "${JUPYTERHUB_USER_EMAIL}"
+fi