A method, system, and computer program product for generating a software documentation file from a software source code file is provided. In one embodiment, the source code file for the software is read by the automatic program documentation generation tool. The tool extracts software documentation from the source code file, by for example, locating documentation begin and end indicia within the source code and extracting the data contained within the indicia. The documentation has been previously written into the source code by a software developer, programmer, or engineer. The tool then creates a software documentation file, such as, for example, a UNIX Man Page or an HTML page, from the extracted software documentation extracted from the source code. The software documentation file is typically stored in a central repository.