diff -r 528234542ff0 Doc/library/inspect.rst
--- a/Doc/library/inspect.rst	Mon Apr 14 16:49:07 2014 -0400
+++ b/Doc/library/inspect.rst	Mon Apr 14 17:52:47 2014 -0400
@@ -349,6 +349,12 @@
    Python source file (if the object is a module).
 
 
+.. function:: splitdoc(object)
+
+   Return a tuple where the first element is the synopsis of the function and the second 
+   element is just the rest of the documentation.
+
+
 .. function:: getfile(object)
 
    Return the name of the (text or binary) file in which an object was defined.
diff -r 528234542ff0 Lib/inspect.py
--- a/Lib/inspect.py	Mon Apr 14 16:49:07 2014 -0400
+++ b/Lib/inspect.py	Mon Apr 14 17:52:47 2014 -0400
@@ -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 +483,18 @@
         return None
     return cleandoc(doc)
 
+def splitdoc(object):
+    """Split a doc string into a synopsis line (if any) and the rest."""
+    result = getdoc(object) or getcomments(object)
+    doc = result and re.sub('^ *\n', '', result.rstrip()) or ''
+
+    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)
+
 def cleandoc(doc):
     """Clean up indentation from docstrings.
 
diff -r 528234542ff0 Lib/pydoc.py
--- a/Lib/pydoc.py	Mon Apr 14 16:49:07 2014 -0400
+++ b/Lib/pydoc.py	Mon Apr 14 17:52:47 2014 -0400
@@ -88,15 +88,6 @@
     result = inspect.getdoc(object) or inspect.getcomments(object)
     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)
-
 def classname(object, modname):
     """Get a class name and qualify it with a module name if necessary."""
     name = object.__name__
@@ -1083,7 +1074,7 @@
     def docmodule(self, object, name=None, mod=None):
         """Produce text documentation for a given module object."""
         name = object.__name__ # ignore the passed-in name
-        synop, desc = splitdoc(getdoc(object))
+        synop, desc = inspect.splitdoc(object)
         result = self.section('NAME', name + (synop and ' - ' + synop))
         all = getattr(object, '__all__', None)
         docloc = self.getdocloc(object)
diff -r 528234542ff0 Lib/test/test_inspect.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_inspect.py	Mon Apr 14 16:49:07 2014 -0400
+++ b/Lib/test/test_inspect.py	Mon Apr 14 17:52:47 2014 -0400
@@ -280,6 +280,11 @@
         self.assertEqual(inspect.getdoc(git.abuse),
                          'Another\n\ndocstring\n\ncontaining\n\ntabs')
 
+    def test_splitdoc(self):
+        self.assertEqual(inspect.splitdoc(mod), ('A module docstring.', ''))
+        self.assertEqual(inspect.splitdoc(mod.StupidGit), 
+                        ('A longer,', 'indented\n\ndocstring.'))
+
     def test_cleandoc(self):
         self.assertEqual(inspect.cleandoc('An\n    indented\n    docstring.'),
                          'An\nindented\ndocstring.')