Automatic template instantiation for cross compilation is provided. More particularly, a routine (40) on a development computer system (10) extracts template information from source code (22). The routine (40) uses the template information to generate template source files (56, 56A, 56B), which may then be compiled with a cross compiler (20) to provide object code (54, 54A, 54B). Owing to one or more templates being dependent on one or more other templates, the routine is repeated until all templates, and their associated dependencies, are compiled into object code (54B) with the cross compiler (20). This object code is then portable from the development computer system (10) to a target computer system (60) for automatic template instantiation. Moreover, a template repository (52) is used to hold in part the template information. By centrally locating template information, duplicate templates may be avoided to conserve data resources.