  We construct the graviton two-point function for a two-parameter family of
linear covariant gauges in n-dimensional de Sitter space. The construction is
performed via the mode-sum method in the Bunch-Davies vacuum in the Poincar\'e
patch, and a Fierz-Pauli mass term is introduced to regularize the infrared
(IR) divergences. The resulting two-point function is de Sitter-invariant, and
free of IR divergences in the massless limit (for a certain range of
parameters) though analytic continuation with respect to the mass for the
pure-gauge sector of the two-point function is necessary for this result. This
general result agrees with the propagator obtained by analytic continuation
from the sphere [Phys. Rev. D 34, 3670 (1986); Class. Quant. Grav. 18, 4317
(2001)]. However, if one starts with strictly zero mass theory, the IR
divergences are absent only for a specific value of one of the two parameters,
with the other parameter left generic. These findings agree with recent
calculations in the Landau (exact) gauge [J. Math. Phys. 53, 122502 (2012)],
where IR divergences do appear in the spin-two (tensor) part of the two-point
function. However, we find the strength (including the sign) of the IR
divergence to be different from the one found in this reference.
