diff -r 469ff344f8fd Doc/library/inspect.rst
--- a/Doc/library/inspect.rst	Sat Jan 31 12:20:40 2015 -0800
+++ b/Doc/library/inspect.rst	Sun Feb 01 04:58:02 2015 +0000
@@ -356,6 +356,7 @@
 .. function:: getdoc(object)
 
    Get the documentation string for an object, cleaned up with :func:`cleandoc`.
+   If the object has no documentation string, ``None`` is returned.
 
 
 .. function:: getcomments(object)
@@ -365,6 +366,17 @@
    Python source file (if the object is a module).
 
 
+.. function:: splitdoc(doc)
+
+   Return a tuple where the first element is the synopsis of the function and the second
+   element is the rest of the documentation. Return an empty synopsis string
+   if there is no single-line synopsis, and return an empty second element if
+   there is no body. Return two empty strings if the input is ``None``.
+   This will fail with a :exc:`TypeError` for other inputs.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.5
+
+
 .. function:: getfile(object)
 
    Return the name of the (text or binary) file in which an object was defined.
diff -r 469ff344f8fd Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst
--- a/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst	Sat Jan 31 12:20:40 2015 -0800
+++ b/Doc/whatsnew/3.5.rst	Sun Feb 01 04:58:02 2015 +0000
@@ -221,6 +221,10 @@
   subclassing of :class:`~inspect.Signature` easier.  (Contributed
   by Yury Selivanov and Eric Snow in :issue:`17373`.)
 
+* New function :func:`inspect.splitdoc`, which returns a tuple from a
+  documentation string, where the first element is the synopsis of
+  the function and the second element is the rest of the documentation.
+
 ipaddress
 ---------
 
diff -r 469ff344f8fd Lib/inspect.py
--- a/Lib/inspect.py	Sat Jan 31 12:20:40 2015 -0800
+++ b/Lib/inspect.py	Sun Feb 01 04:58:02 2015 +0000
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@
 
     getfile(), getsourcefile(), getsource() - find an object's source code
     getdoc(), getcomments() - get documentation on an object
+    splitdoc() - split a doc string into a synopsis line (if any) and the rest
     getmodule() - determine the module that an object came from
     getclasstree() - arrange classes so as to represent their hierarchy
 
@@ -482,6 +483,20 @@
         return None
     return cleandoc(doc)
 
+def splitdoc(doc):
+    """Split a doc string into a synopsis line (if any) and the rest."""
+    if doc is None:
+        return '', ''
+    if not isinstance(doc, str):
+        raise TypeError("doc must be a string or None")
+
+    lines = doc.strip().split('\n', 2)
+    if len(lines) == 1:
+        return lines[0], ''
+    elif len(lines) >= 2 and not lines[1].rstrip():
+        return lines[0], lines[2]
+    return '', '\n'.join(lines)
+
 def cleandoc(doc):
     """Clean up indentation from docstrings.
 
diff -r 469ff344f8fd Lib/pydoc.py
--- a/Lib/pydoc.py	Sat Jan 31 12:20:40 2015 -0800
+++ b/Lib/pydoc.py	Sun Feb 01 04:58:02 2015 +0000
@@ -91,13 +91,14 @@
     return result and re.sub('^ *\n', '', result.rstrip()) or ''
 
 def splitdoc(doc):
-    """Split a doc string into a synopsis line (if any) and the rest."""
-    lines = doc.strip().split('\n')
-    if len(lines) == 1:
-        return lines[0], ''
-    elif len(lines) >= 2 and not lines[1].rstrip():
-        return lines[0], '\n'.join(lines[2:])
-    return '', '\n'.join(lines)
+    """**DEPRECATED**
+
+    Split a doc string into a synopsis line (if any) and the rest.
+    """
+    warnings.warn("the pydoc.splitdoc is deprecated in favour "
+                  "of inspect.splitdoc",
+                  PendingDeprecationWarning, stacklevel=2)
+    return inspect.splitdoc(doc)
 
 def classname(object, modname):
     """Get a class name and qualify it with a module name if necessary."""
diff -r 469ff344f8fd Lib/test/test_inspect.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_inspect.py	Sat Jan 31 12:20:40 2015 -0800
+++ b/Lib/test/test_inspect.py	Sun Feb 01 04:58:02 2015 +0000
@@ -292,6 +292,37 @@
         self.assertEqual(inspect.getdoc(git.abuse),
                          'Another\n\ndocstring\n\ncontaining\n\ntabs')
 
+        def undocumented():
+            pass
+        self.assertIsNone(inspect.getdoc(undocumented))
+
+    def test_splitdoc(self):
+        with self.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            inspect.splitdoc(b"byte string")
+
+        self.assertEqual(inspect.splitdoc(inspect.getdoc(mod)),
+                         ('A module docstring.', ''))
+
+        self.assertEqual(inspect.splitdoc(inspect.getdoc(mod.StupidGit)),
+                         ('A longer,', 'indented\n\ndocstring.'))
+
+        no_synopsis = """A multiline docstring
+            without a single-line synopsis"""
+        tests = (
+            # (docstring, synopsis, body)
+            (no_synopsis, '', no_synopsis),
+            ('    Strip indent', 'Strip indent', ''),
+            ('Indented blank line\n'
+                '    \n'
+                '    Indented body',
+                'Indented blank line', '    Indented body'),
+            ('', '', ''),
+            (None, '', ''),
+        )
+        for doc, synopsis, body in tests:
+            with self.subTest(repr(doc)):
+                self.assertEqual(inspect.splitdoc(doc), (synopsis, body))
+
     def test_cleandoc(self):
         self.assertEqual(inspect.cleandoc('An\n    indented\n    docstring.'),
                          'An\nindented\ndocstring.')