diff --git a/dabuild.in b/dabuild.in
index c761c7e..c81d9ca 100755
--- a/dabuild.in
+++ b/dabuild.in
@@ -58,10 +58,13 @@ else
   esac
 fi
 
-## check $DABUILD_PACKAGES is a writable directory
 ABUILD_PACKAGES=${DABUILD_PACKAGES:-${PWD%/aports/*}/packages/${ABUILD_VERSION}}
 
-mkdir -p $ABUILD_PACKAGES
+# docker will create mount points as root if not available so create them first
+# use uid 1000 as this is the uid of the builder user in the container
+install -d -o 1000 -g 1000 "$ABUILD_PACKAGES" "$HOME"/.abuild
+
+## check $DABUILD_PACKAGES is a writable directory
 if [ ! \( -d "$ABUILD_PACKAGES" -a -w "$ABUILD_PACKAGES" \) ]; then
   die "Error: invalid or unwritable packages directory specified!" \
       "ABUILD_PACKAGES = '$ABUILD_PACKAGES'" \
@@ -81,6 +84,11 @@ if [ -w "/var/cache/distfiles" ]; then
   ABUILD_VOLUMES="$ABUILD_VOLUMES -v /var/cache/distfiles:/var/cache/distfiles"
 fi
 
+# pass over gitconfig for abuild-keygen
+if [ -f "$HOME/.gitconfig" ]; then
+  ABUILD_VOLUMES="$ABUILD_VOLUMES -v $HOME/.gitconfig:/home/builder/.gitconfig"
+fi
+
 if [ "$DABUILD_CACHE" = "true" ]; then
   for v in %%ABUILD_VOLUMES%% ; do
     vol=abuild-$ABUILD_VERSION-$DABUILD_ARCH-${v//\//_}